[email protected]

In a message dated 7/9/2004 3:02:14 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Kathryn,
That's the episode. I sometimes think that I broke my daughters heart
and she is just starting to forgive me. We have a family bed, (I should say
mattresses lined up on the floor), now and no one is or ever will be
excluded. She's finally, and she's 11, becoming more comfortable with sleep
issues. I can't look back at her very young childhood and feel good about
anything I put her through, and when I ask myself why all I get for an
answer is that it was all out of my own selfishness. My butt is black and
blue from kicking myself.

AnnMarie
************************
Oh, honey, just stop.
I have regrets. I wish once we'd finally decided to pull Julian out of school
we did it immediately rather than waiting until the end of the school year.
There are dozens more.

I am absolutely certain you've done wonderful things with your daughter since
birth, and that they are all part of her. She's not that old now, and she can
have a wonderful childhood.

But you won't be perfect. I'm not. I mess up all the time. I will again. But
I apologize and we move on. Parenting is a relationship, and relationships are
messy. Sometimes we're jerks, sometimes our kids are jerks. It's life, it's
messy, and so cool and wonderful.

Be gentle with yourself too.

Kathryn


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