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Parenting 101?

I feel like every day I ride a rollercoaster, where I feel happy and grateful for my kids, then very frustrated and hopeless, and then back again. Does every parent feel this way at different times? I don’t know how I’m doing as a parent, which is scary for me. We laugh and have fun together, we stay home sometimes and go do fun things a lot, too. I praise myself in my head for having us all dressed, and for remembering the 17 items we need to bring with us when we go somewhere for the day. Hooray, I’m doing well! Then Chase misbehaves or talks back to me, and I don’t know exactly what the best solution is, besides telling him to not talk to me like that. Now I’m NOT doing that well as a parent… But I also realize that it depends on who is judging you. Because you might do something you know is right, and everyone else looks at you and believes it’s the wrong way to do it. I am reading a book called Parenting with Love and Logic, and I’m hoping it will give me tips for specific situations with kids. I go back and forth all the time, feeling like I’m doing a pretty good job raising my kids, but more often than not, I wonder if I can handle any more kids someday, I wonder why I feel so out of control, and why it feels like the days are so slow, but also passing me by! I try not to compare myself to others, but sometimes it’s hard not to. Overall, life is good and I am thankful for so much. We have a lot of good and not so good times at home. In the evening, Pace comes home to help me out, and dinnertime is crazy, but then we all hang out together and it’s so blissful and fulfilling. And after we get the kids to bed, I wonder why I felt like things were so chaotic, and I feel like life is going just fine. Recently, I talked to my friend Melissa and it seemed that we were both feeling some of what I was just saying above. Also, I was just blog-hopping and another friend seemed to have similar sentiments, which helps me feel better. Hopefully I can get a better hold on things!