What is right is not always what is easy.

What is right is not always what is easy. What is right is not always what is easy. What is right is not always what is easy.  What is right is not always what is easy. What is right is not always what is easy. What is right is not always what is easy.  What is right is not always what is easy...........that is what I keep reminding myself.  It is a statement, that as a parent, I think we all need to be reminded of.  And, it isn't 100% accurate.  The more accurate statement is "what is right is almost NEVER what is easy."  Being a parent is not easy, and being a good parent and raising a good natured, well rounded, respectful human being is definitely not easy.  It is a battle every day to make the right choices on how to handle different situations regarding my kids (especially my almost 3 year old). Thankfully, Chris and I are on the same page and have tried our best together as a team to make the "right" choice, not the "easy" choice. These choices started from the get go and have not gotten any easier.  Putting our newborn to bed in her own room, following a Baby Wise schedule and waking a sleeping baby to eat at 3 a.m., letting her cry it out, no babies in our bed, brushing her teeth before bed, dropping her off at Sunday school when she doesn't want to go, taking paci away, and the hardest for me these days: following through when I make a threat of a punishment. Empty threats do not work.  They actually make the situation worse and I am pretty sure they will bite me in the butt when my girls are teenagers.  For example, when I say "if you do that one more time then I am going to turn Mickey off", I need to follow through and turn Mickey off, (even though I am only halfway through folding laundry and I am enjoying the entertainment Mickey provides so I can complete a task).  It is not what is easy, it is what is right.  I have been slipping lately and not following through.  Ryan is on to me and she doesn't hesitate to do whatever I told her not to do again because she thinks I am all talk.  My goal this summer is to not be all talk.  I am going to try my best to not be lazy and to not take the easy road, but to follow through.  Otherwise Miss Ry Pie is gonna walk all over me! And, when she is 13 years old I want there to be no doubt that I mean what I say.  I want her to already know that I am not all talk and that I run the show.  Please start praying for me now for what lies ahead of me during the years of 2022-2027 (Ryan's teenage years).  I have a lot of work to do as a parent before then.