I went through bought camp during the summer of 1979.
This always amazes people for some reason…maybe I just don’t look the type. However, I did it, I graduated, I lived to tell the tale.
Me. Ft LeondardWood 1979. Check out the 2 M-16s I was packing!
There is one thing you should know. Boot camp meant 15 – 25 mile forced marches with packs on our backs. It meant sleeping in tents, eating C- Rations, going through the gas chamber and coming out with eyes and nose running. Boot camp was lousy food, being screamed at all the time and pushups. LOTS of pushups… but it did NOT prepare me for parenthood.
I can shoot an M-16. I can shoot and M-16 from the hip on rapid fire. I can throw a hand grenade and blow up a tank. I can low crawl through mud, scoot underneath barbed wire while being shot at, and jump into foxholes. With all these wonderful abilities parenting should be a cinch. It isn’t.
None of that prepared me for nights of holding a sick baby while he threw up all over me…and not minding it a bit.
None of that helped me to not cry when I had to give my son blood thinner shots twice a day when he was 2.
None of that helped me to understand how to make my teenagers feel better about themselves when other kids were mean.
And none of that helped me to know how to be a cool mom…not interfering when not necessary, fiercely protecting when it was necessary.
No matter how many books you read, no matter how much you think you know, parenting is harder than it looks. It is easy to look at someone else and think that they are not doing something right but not so easy when you are doing it yourself.
This may sound prideful but after having eight children I don’t tend to take advice from young adults who have one or two toddlers. I smile, I thank them, and I try to remember how knowledgeable I was at age 30.
The only way I know to raise kids successfully is to walk it. Take it one step at a time. Pray a lot. Make decisions based on each unique situation…and never give up.
Maybe boot camp did prepare me after all.
image: marye audet
Post from: Blisstree