Dear Ole Dad

It's no mystery that having a baby really changes your life, mostly your relationship with your significant other. Or in my case, my baby daddy.

Honestly, there are a lot of times that we don't see eye to eye when it comes to parenting. It's not necessarily that one of us is wrong or right, (for the record, I'm usually right) it's just that we do things differently. And it took me a long time to be "ok" with it.

I am, by nature, a bossy, demanding, control freak. I just can't help it. Even now, 18 months later, I sometimes want to whack PB upside the head and tell him to follow suit! But then I remind myself that doing it differently, is exactly what The King needs to learn to be flexible.

Because Lord knows his mother ain't!

So here's five things I think PB does better than me.

Sometimes.

Because let's be real.

1. He teaches The King things I would never even think of like jumping or building things. There's seriously so much stuff that's not on my radar. He also was the first person to start teaching him colors and shapes and such. I didn't even realize that he was ready to learn that stuff at the time.

2. He's way, way more laid back than me. I live and die by schedules and routine and eating healthy, for the most part. To a certain extent Kingy needs those things but I now realize he won't crash and burn if we stay up just a smidge later or gasp, have a damn cookie.

3. He's strict when it's necessary and totally not when it's not important. I am strict. Period.

4. He teaches Kingy all the man stuff. I just don't know man stuff.

5. He lets Kingy fail and fall down and teaches him to be tough. Plus he gives him more independence to figure that stuff out, sometimes too much (sorry, had to) but mostly, just the right amount. I don't think I'm a crazy helicopter mom but I do spend a lot of time interacting with Kingy, making sure he doesn't do something dangerous or crazy. I worry. He's my baby. And that's not a sexist, boys should be tough kind of thing. It's just that I kiss boo-boos and make a production and PB says, "you're ok bud" and redirects him. Not everything needs to be a devastating, dramatic scrape. I get that.

All of that to say, if you're a new mom or struggling with that stuff, maybe take a step back and take another look at how you both do things. It took me a year to come to terms with the fact that we're just never going to parent the exact same way. Being consistent on a lot of things is important but accepting the differences and embracing them, will make for a seriously awesome environment to grow up in.