"He's My Best Friend!"

Every so often, a sort of perfect parenting moment happens and I think I may not be totally screwing up my kids. Today in the midst of a tickle war, while I tickling her brother, Cassie shrieked "Mom! Stop! Stop tickling Chase! He's my brother! Stop tickling him! He's my BEST FRIEND!" I, of course, stopped immediately and asked her to repeat what she said. Cassie has never withheld affection from me, but she's often coy with her daddy and her brother. And yet, there she is calling her brother her BFF.

Last night I was relaying something else cute the kids did and said to my husband, "You know, I may not be so bad at this parenting thing after all." Jamie, in his infinate wisdom, replied, "Really Christi, it's HARD to screw them up too much. Look at me. I raised myself. Dad was at work all the time, and Mom was locked in the bathroom. I turned out fine." His assement is largely true. MIL is bi-polar and doesn't like her meds, so she did spend most of his childhood hiding from life in general.

My response was, "Well, you turned out alright, but I bet if you had a sibling, it would be a hot mess!" He agreed.

So I will soldier on. The house is clean, the family fed, laundry caught up, dog (and mom) walked. I've got a stack of library books to get to and a baby blanket to finish crocheting....