Standing?

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
Alexander Hamilton

At first I looked at this quote and thought to myself, "how in the hell can I apply this to my life or motherhood in general?" Then I took a mental step backwards and realized that there's plenty to talk about.

I grew up going to a non-denomination church. My father had been a Catholic growing up and had  taken a stance sort of against religion, finding the church to be money grubbing and hypocritical. So he rarely joined the rest of the family at church. However, he was an avid connoisseur of all History Channel documentaries on religion, the basis of Christianity, or other programming related to the spiritual. My mother was/is a die hard Christian woman. There was plenty of values and morals that were foisted upon my sister and I.

I suppose, in a way, what I got growing up was akin to "stand for God or else". That sounds slightly cynical. I don't mean it to. It's just that looking back on things, I find that I completely sympathize with my dad. I'm rather against religion. However, I can relate to the spiritual. I believe in God. I think the Bible has solid principles. For the most part I try to avoid judging people because honestly, I despise when people judge me - they aren't in the "know" with everything I'm going through and vice versa. I know I sin. And I pray. I believe that God listens and that He doesn't always answer our prayers...at least in the way that we'd like they be answered, but sometimes He does. Overall, I think God and I are on good terms.

Others might disagree. Others might say that I've fallen for a lot of things. As an example, one of my friends can't get over the fact that I didn't scoff at Dan Brown's idea that Jesus was married and had a child(ren). I don't have a problem with gay marriage. I'm not convinced that the Bible is word for word end all be all of everything - it was written by men, is really male dominated, has been translated thousands of times, and well...in general has plenty of contradictions within (last I checked, women weren't still being forced to wear hats in public...at least in the US) I'm not a die hard creationist - I always want to yell "why can't we have BOTH creationism AND evolution! it's science people! things evolve!" So, that's my big soapbox for some other time.

Anyway. I guess my conclusion on that front is that I know what I believe. But I'm also open minded to other's ideas and can be swayed. Does that mean I fall for anything? I don't think so. I don't know that I "stand" for something...at least not in a pretty little box.

Since I enjoy talking about my little babies, I've thought about how I can apply this to them. I suppose if you want to look at standing on some sort of parenting principle, I'm here to say that I've tossed out all "principles". I went into parenthood having ideas of how perfect our little babies would be and how I would never allow my children to behave this way or that. After only 17-18 months of being a mother, I've tossed out all those ideas I previously had. Well, maybe not all of them. But Boogs, in particular, has challenged how I view parenthood. It's just not all about playing with blocks and reading books and periodically sending someone to time out. We have a little girl that LOVES to be tortured. Well, I suppose tortured is a strong word. But until she was 14 months old she HAD to be spanked to sleep. Not just patted. Spanked. She loves when you toss objects at her head that bounce off (empty water bottles, stuffed books, clothes). She thinks time out is hilarious! She loves to be squished. Sometimes, when she's being especially naughty, you just have to lock yourself in the bathroom and have a cry for there's no stopping her. Any form of punishment you could think of is all fun for her.

Ok, so I think I totally got off topic with that last bit. I suppose that when it comes down to it, applying today's quote to my kids is that I want to have SOME solid principles to stand on. Like the Golden Rule. That's a pretty good place to stand. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Unless you're Boogs...then perhaps that ought to be Do unto others as Mommy would have you do...TRY, dear Boogins, TRY not to beat them! That being open minded is a really good place to "live". Don't judge others. Listen to mommy and daddy, we might not always know what we're doing, but in the moment, we're definitely doing it to make sure you are safe and loved.

And remember...no one has a bridge anywhere in this world that they can sell you.