Parenting LESS is MORE

When I first began to "parent" my toddler, I noticed a significant shift in our relationship.

It was a really hard transitional phase at first, that both she and I quickly became resentful of.

I was doing the only thing that I knew how.

I was falling back on the only parenting styles that I had experienced or witnessed.

It was when my daughter began acting out so much that I thought, sheesh, there's just gotta be a better way!

So I of course went and bought some modern parenting books and began studying up on parenting techniques and especially discipline.

It was after reading my first parenting book that I realized that I was just parenting too darn much!

Reading this book helped me realize that I was attempting to control literally EVERY move that my daughter made!

Don't sit there. Don't touch that. Stop doing that. Put that down. Get over here. Just sit there, be still, and do nothing please...and be happy about it.

Sound familiar?

So the solution is simple:

Parent less.

I learned that we as parents have a tendency to hover too much, and control too much.

When in reality, we should be allowing much more freedom for our children to explore the universe, and only intervene what we truly deem it's necessary.

Interesting, right???

So I gave it a try.

I backed off.

And it was glorious.

I was no longer hovering over my toddler telling her what she could and could not do every second of the day.

You can imagine that this change did WONDERS for my anxiety. WONDERS I tell you!

I let go of all of the little things.

Which really is, just most of the things.

I would only pipe up when I saw that she was about to harm herself, someone else, or something valuable.

Or if she was about to do something that I considered inappropriate. You know, like still another kid's toy or something.

I still do my best to watch how frequently the word "no" comes out of my mouth.

And not only am I happier, but, you guessed it- so is my child!

When mama TODDLER ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

When toddler happy, everybody happy.

Today, we are much happier.

My daughter has the freedom to explore and play pretty much as she pleases.

And I basically just let her.

Because honestly, I mean honestly, why not?