I’ve been carrying around this huge load of parent guilt lately. And, the only way I know how to relieve the pain of my guilt is confess my parental failings to the whole world, hoping it makes me feel better.

After you read my confessions, I hope you will forgive me and not feel like you’ve been wasting your time reading the blog of such an incompetent and defective (grand)parent.

Just remember, I’ve always stipulated on this blog that there are a lot of things about parenting that I somehow missed or forgot from the first time around and now I’m having to learn them all over again! (Translation: Don’t take any parenting advice from me!)

So, I hope you don’t feel cheated after you read my confessions. And, I definitely hope you will continue reading our adventures in spite of my obvious deficiencies as a parent (although I still claim to be an awesome grandparent!).

So, am I a bad parent if I feed the kids Froot Loops for supper…again…at 9:00 p.m.? Kenzie had T-ball practice at 6:00 p.m. and my only chance to mow the jungle in our backyard was after her practice. They can survive for a short time on cold cereal and fast food, can’t they?

Am I a bad parent if I have Friday’s off during the summer and still take the kids to daycare? It’s the only day I can get all the stuff done around the house that I can’t do when they’re around like painting, repairing, bill paying, organizing…and maybe…just maybe a little nap!

And while we’re on the subject of daycare, am I a bad parent if when I go to Kaleb’s classroom at daycare to pick him up, he asks me if he can stay a little longer? Absolutely not! You have to go home with me whether you like it or not!

Am I a bad parent if when they don’t mind me, I pull out a piece of paper and start writing on it, telling them them I’m putting them on the naughty list for Santa to see? It’s like “writing up” a bad employee. They don’t want any documentation of their bad behavior! Besides, I learned it from them. One day Kenzie got mad at Kaleb and got out her little Hello Kitty notebook and started writing in her four-year-old scribbles and telling him she was putting him on the naughty list. He went ballistic!

Am I a bad parent if I put the kids to bed right after dinner because they didn’t have a nap and are so tired they can’t stop fighting with each other and being disrespectful to me? (Refer to my first confession for the dinner menu.)

And, am I a bad parent if I put the kids to bed right after dinner without a bath, fully intending to give them a quick shower in the morning before they leave for daycare, and then forget and send them to daycare the next day unbathed? But, they went swimming at the pool while at daycare, so shouldn’t that count as a bath?

Am I a bad parent if lay down in their beds with them at night and scratch their backs to help them fall asleep, and I’m the one who falls asleep?

FROOT LOOPS FOR DINNER, AGAIN?

Well, that relieves some of my guilt, so I think I’ll stop with the confessions for now…

But maybe you have some things you need to get off your chest. You may find it very therapeutic to tell the whole world about your parental imperfections!

So, give my Internet therapy a try!

If you’ve got some things you need to confess, then share it with us in the Comments below. Feel free to share all your defects with us.

And, if it doesn’t help you, at least it might make me look a little better as a parent and it will certainly make me feel better to know there are other bad parents out there somewhere.

And, while your confessions may not make you a better parent, at least you’ll feel better! And if you feel better, then maybe you will feel like trying a little harder not to be a bad parent!