Parenting is hard

I sat across from a dear friend today and she looked at me and simply said "Parenting is hard."  She is right.

We had walked together and shared prayer requests, dreams, and struggles.  My parenting life has been a struggle recently.  I'm not talking about how Penny snuck out of bed, grabbed a scissors and shredded her pajama bottoms.  That is easy stuff to me.  You didn't finish your duck duties?  I've got tools to use in that case.  "Quit hitting your sister.  You are not the mom today.  If you do that one more time I'm going to put you in time out."  These are regular issues for me.  I can handle them and feel like for the most part, I handle them well.

Hard stuff affects my heart because I see my kids hurting.  Hurting because of friends on the playground.  Hurting because they can't quite fit in.  Hurting because they thought they were doing fine and enjoying themselves and instead they hurt someone.  I've shed many tears this week and the blog has been silent.  Silent because there is a time to not share these hurts.  Silent because my heart wasn't sure what direction to go.  Silent to protect my kids and let them learn and grow without comments outside of the house.

Tonight I need to walk to a neighbors house and talk with a girl from the bus stop.  We have to resolve an issue.  I'm torn up about it!  I feel like an idiot, and yet I thought I was doing the right thing.  Seems like I'm facing some of the same issues as my kids.  I may need to ask them for advice when they get off of the bus.  :)