Parental Scorecard

Benjamin Franklin is one of my idols.  One of the reasons I admire him so much is that he was constantly trying to better himself and was a forefather in the self-help movement.  He was also a forefather of the sex advice column but that’s a whole other blog post.  Franklin dedicated himself to living a virtuous life…other than that time he fathered an illegitimate child.  He kept himself accountable by using a chart listing the 13 virtues and the days of week.  At the end of the day he would review these 13 virtues and put a mark by ones he felt he had not lived up to that day.   I’m wondering what day of the week had a check mark by “Don’t father an illegitimate child”.  Anyway, Franklin has inspired me to try a similar system of score keeping for parental wins and fails.  Here’s what one day would look like…

Gave Hudson a hug when he whined for cereal and chocolate milk first thing upon awakening.  No meltdown.  +1

Meltdown over Hudson whining for cereal and chocolate milk first thing upon awakening.  -1

Told Hudson we could do anything he wanted this afternoon and he chose going to the bookstore.  Have instilled love of literacy.  +1

Realize now that I have brainwashed Hudson into liking the bookstore with purchase of cookie and chocolate milk from café at the end of every trip.  -1

Kenzie successfully sat in time-our for two minutes without attempt to run away.  This is a result of my spectacular parenting skills. +1

Kenzie trying to eat fishing game pieces repeatedly (leading to previously mentioned time-out) result of lack of proper parental supervision.  -1

Let kids eat hot dogs and chicken McNuggets both on the same day.  -1

Made homemade cheese crackers with Hudson +100

(At this point you may be thinking the scoring seems kind of arbitrary, but look, I didn’t make up the rules.  I just follow them.)

(Yes, ok, I totally made them up.  I refer you to Day of Eating Awesomeness where I do what I want.)

Lying -100

Realize Hudson wore the same pair of dirty sock 2 days in a row.  -1

Remembered to change his underwear.  +1

Read Kenzie a bedtime story, sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, kept Kenzie from eating bedtime story +1

Hudson picked the longest bedtime story he could find and I read the whole thing without skipping parts.  +1

Snuggled one extra minute +1

If you’re keeping score, I’m slightly ahead.  In this game, I’d say that’s good enough.   I’ll consider it a win.  It’s a win because I say so and I do what I want.

It's a good book.  You should read it.