On Anal-Retentive Parents

In my last posting, I blasted those parental scorekeepers who judge other parents. And now I'm about to do the same thing: Hell, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

My target in this posting are anal-retentive parents -- you know, the type who cannot stand their kids getting dirty or messy. The type who pick up every crumb as it drops to the floor or wipe their baby's mouth after every bite.

As if these kids are part of the Royal Family and a paparrazi deluge is expected.

These are the type of parents I don't quite understand because the fact is this: babies do get messy...in fact, they are dirt magnets all the time. It's nice to get pelted with cottage cheese or spaghetti sauce. It brings out the kid in me.





I revel in Ari's messes, seen in these pictures of her attempts to eat angel hair pasta. My little angel may not be pretty while she's eating, but she's having fun. There will be time enough for her to be a prim and proper adult, but that time is not now.



And I've even frequented public places with my kid looking like a waif (gulp!). Remember the scene in The Sound of Music, when the kids are pomp and circumstancing around the countryside dressed in drapes? Sure the kids were wearing window treatments, but they had more fun than the other kids in Austria whose parents were constantly picking up after them.

Ari may be wearing much of her dinner, but who really cares?

Beth L. Gainer is a professional writer and has published numerous academic and magazine articles, as well as an essay on her breast cancer experience in the anthology Voices of Breast Cancer by LaChance Publishing. She writes about medical advocacy at www.bethlgainer.blogspot.com, and her cat Hemi blogs at www.catterchatter.blogspot.com. Beth teaches writing and literature at Robert Morris University in the Chicago area. She can be contacted at bethlgainer@gmail.com and gainercallingtheshots@gmail.com. She also blogs on the adventures of her cats, Hemi and Cosette, at http://www.catterchatter.blogspot.com./.