The great equalizer...

...is children. I'm not certain I've ever been force fed so much humility in my life as I have since having a child. Lots of what you believed or hoped was true about loving them, worrying about them, controlling them and caring for them is not true or is much harder than you ever imagined. Probably the biggest misconception I had was that my will would be stronger than his because I was the adult. That's definitely not how it works. I have to make a conscious decision to outlast him in any battle of wills because he will always push me past my usual breaking point. Now, I know that some of this is just unique to a strong-willed child, but there are lots of us out there that have those kind of children. The parents that don't have them are the ones who give you those loathsome looks in the store, church and other public places clearly trying to say with their eyes, "You do not know how to raise your child correctly, good thing I do!" Yeah, I know this sounds kinda paranoid but many of you know what I'm talking about. They're out there. Well, I've come to accept (sorta) that I just have to move past that. It's not easy. I still want to run and hide when my son lets loose one of his powerful attention grabbing tantrums in some public place and some mother with a completely docile little girl in clean clothes and sitting quietyly and demurely in her cart looks on with "THAT LOOK." Well, maybe one day I'll be rewarded for all this humliation. In some ways I already am. I now have sympathy and understanding for people I never would have. My heart goes out to that parent at the airport wrestling her screaming child with one arm while she fishes for money in her wallet to pay for the pizza that took the attendant 10 minutes to get. I have understanding for the parent checking out at the store as quickly as possible so she can go hide her embarrassment in the privacy of her car since everyone has been listening to her child wail and scream the whole time she shopped. I identify with the parent chasing her child down the mall/sidewalk/thoroughfare yelling, "STOP!" while she juggles bags and humiliation brought on by this tiny person having outsmarted her yet again. I feel for those people, and I didn't used to. I also understand how that same child can bring you to your knees with joy and love in a way I never imagined. I think it's all worth it, but boy it's hard.