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I saw this story on NPR.com about The Top Five Worries of Parents.

Apparently, according to a survey, parents are worrying about the wrong things. They worry about:
1. Kidnapping
2. School snipers
3. Terrorists
4. Dangerous strangers
5. Drugs

But they should be worried about:
1. Car accidents
2. Homicide (usually committed by a person who knows the child, not a stranger)
3. Abuse
4. Suicide
5. Drowning

Now, what struck me about this article is that from the beginning of the article, it wasn’t clear what kind of worrying they meant. My parenting worries don’t generally involve bodily harm or death. I have other worries to keep me occupied from things I don’t have control over, like terrorists or school snipers. I came up with my own list of worries, and only two involve bodily harm:

1. Am I causing psychological damage by being a bad parent?
2. Will she be screwed up if she is an only child?
3. Getting hit by a car when she runs into the street because I didn’t teach her to listen to the word Stop or No.
4. Not finding a decent elementary school
5. Serious illness

And about the list of things we parents should be worried about… I had a car seat check just the other week because I was unsure I had reinstalled the car seat properly. I had. And I really don’t know what to say about the rest.

I’m not a super mom. There seem to be a lot of super moms out there… especially on my facebook friends list. They are either very busy with work deadlines or they are taking their kids to zoos, parks and museums every day of the week. They are sewing costumes and crafts, or cooking wonderful meals. And some of them are doing all of the above at one time. While raising multiple children.

I spent the day checking facebook, having breakfast and lunch with Lilia (but not doing the dishes afterward), doing a little laundry, watching Lilia’s animals give a music concert, helping Lilia figure out how to make a Lego building that won’t wobble and reworking a turkey feather so Lilia could have her very own quill pen.

I actually wrote this post a few weeks ago when I got a pang of guilt about spending so much time at home this summer due to the various illnesses we’ve suffered. But you know what? That’s not a bad list of things to do in a day. It’s not super mom quality, but it’s alright. The dishes eventually got done too.

I haven’t been posting much. I’m not even that busy. Honestly, since Lilia started school, I’ve been trying to figure out a routine– but something (colds, appointments, etc) usually disrupts it, so I haven’t worked one out. She only has a few weeks left to this school year, so hopefully I will figure it out in the fall. We only have two plans for summer, but they are good ones! First, in mid-June, we hope to go to the 2010 Great Hudson River Revival in Croton-on-Hudson, NY– just for a weekend. And second, in July, we’re going to Maine for a little less than a week– first to a little town called Stonington, and then on to Portland, to visit the E family, who relocated from Philadelphia over a year ago.

The rest of the summer, I’m not sure what we’ll do. We still have a membership to the Please Touch Museum, for too hot or rainy days. Last year, when I used a trip to Sesame Place as potty-training bribery, I ended up buying us all memberships, because they had a deal that got us in last year and all of this year too. I bought the memberships before we had ever been there, and when we got there, I realized I don’t love it. I don’t know if I really even like it. But we only went the one time last year, and Lilia did like it. They have a lot of water activities… which would mean I’d have to wear my bathing suit in public. Even if we only go once or twice, the price was still worth it. Maybe we’ll check that out on a weekday after school is over, and if we like it enough, we could go weekly.

And then I’m thinking that we should go explore Philadelphia. Since I started working every other weekend, Joe and Lilia have been exploring and having grand adventures. I need to have some grand adventures with her in center city while he is at work. She’s four, she doesn’t need the stroller, I don’t need to carry a diaper bag anymore… we’ll pack a lunch, take the train, and explore. I have a feeling it won’t be as easy as that.

Lilia just handed me a drawing of me. She even put an M on it for Mom.
I think this feeling is called swooning. I <3 that girl!

We pulled out the camping mats while cleaning the other day… and Lilia first created an animal slide with one, and then turned it into a jumper’s paradise. She’d fling herself off the couch and jump… Thump onto the mat. I kept thinking… if something bad happens, will this make us bad parents? Even if something bad doesn’t happen… does this make us bad parents? Just last week, she stood on top of the toilet seat to brush her teeth… I thought, that’s not really safe, but I didn’t stop her… and boom, down she went, hitting the tub. And before that, while I was rushing around getting ready to go to an appointment, Lilia sat down with her craft scissors (at least they were kids’ craft scissors), and snipped her stuffed animals’ fur. Wait, is this okay to admit on my blog? I promise, she won’t do it again.