I am the writer/owner of ‘MA! motherhood with attitude.’ The artist/owner of our company, Tiffany, will add her two cents on this blog now and then, as well. Tiffany and I often talk about the struggle to earn a buck through our freelancing as we also try to make the ‘MA! dream’ come true. Our mission is to expose ‘perfect parenting propaganda’ for what it is: hogwash! We adore imperfect parents (and embrace the fact that we are among them.)Reading = Parental Torture
Am I the only doting parent out there who thinks that reading with a new reader is akin to waterboarding?
I know I’m not the most patient person on the planet, but when it takes my 5-year-old a full minute to sound out the word, “can,” I nearly burst!
Sitting there on the couch with her, we are the picture of ‘darling girl and helpful mom.’ Inside, I’m truly SCREAMING, “CAN! CAN! THE FREAKING WORD IS CAN! FORGODSSAKE JUST SPIT IT OUT AND MOVE ON!”
But I refrain and keep the peace…
She looks up at me with those huge blue eyes, so proud, and continues making a “k” sound, which is correct, but venturing to that “a” just takes so long. Then she says, “k”… “a”… “k”… “a”…And all I can think is, “N! IT’S AN N! THE LAST EVER-LOVING SOUND IS N!”
Finally, she takes the great leap to “k”… “a”… “k”… “a”…”N!” She looks up at me expectantly as if I should be doing a dance like when she pooped on the potty the first time but we’re not done yet!
“OK, honey, put all those sounds together and you get…?”
“k”… “a”… “k”… “a”…”N!”… “Can?”
‘YES! YES! YES! CAN! IT’S CAN! IT’S CAN! Oh, honey, Mommy is so proud of you! Now, what’s the next word?’
“Rrrrrrr”…. “Rrrrrr”… “Rrrrr”….
Dave, honey? Can you get me a glass of wine?
