Alrighty... Time to start day two. I've decided that I am going to attempt to blog once a day, at least until I get this down. And seeing as I don't really have an audience yet, I might as well take this time to sort through some of the BS that needs to be established, but at the same time I don't intend on discussing frequently. I'm going to try to tackle some of the larger, more contreversial issues now so that I don't have to later - and if I do, I can merely site what I've written here and move forward from that.

So, I guess I'll start of with religion/spirituality. I do want to state that I have no intention of using this blog as a platform for my views and beliefs in this area. I have the utmost respect for the right to believe and practice whatever you want, or to not take part at all. I realize that in posting this, I may be opening myself up for critisism, but I don't really care. I can take the heat.

I personally prefer the term spirituality to religion. My beliefs are everchanging, and likely always will be. I feel like the term religion is too strict to allow for change. My specific set of beliefs and spirituality doesn't have a name - at least not one that I know of. I believe that God - whoever/whatever that may be - is completely infinite. I'm a very all or nothing kind of girl, and I mostly prefer all to nothing. What I mean by this, that God is infinite, is that by stating that I just believe in the Christian God, or this god or that god, or even this set of gods, I'm placing it into a finite role. I'm basically saying that once I cross "this" line, my god can't save me. Now, I'm not saying that I want to perform evil deeds by any means. No, I have no intentions of going on a baby murder rampage. I just want the freedom to make mistakes. And, as I said before, I'm kind of all or nothing - so when I mess up, I do it big.

I choose to base my morals around those of the Christian faith. I still attend church from time to time, and I'm very close to some very VERY religious people. I have yet to clash with anyone about this particular view - however I was told once recently by an aquaintance that my point of view made  him uncomfortable. So, we came to an agreement that I won't spout my BS if he will pay me the same respect. And, now that that's out of the way, I suppose that's all I ask of you... My... somewhat small to nonexistent audience. And, really, I don't see that there will be any problems any time soon.

Okay. What else?... Child-rearing. Again - I will try not to step on your feet if you agree to do the same. It's every parent's right to do what they want with their children (within state-regulated reason, thank you) and so long as your child is not harming me, my child, or our property, I will do my best to stay out of your way.

As I'm sure most parents do, I am constantly having to update my bag of tricks and trades in child-rearing. Pretty much the only constant part of the equation in my life as a mother has been consistency. I've gotten into a number of (for some reason) very heated debates concerning this. I personally just don't see how you can raise a child with inconsistent rules and values. But, like I said, I'll stay out of your business as a parent so long as you're not causing harm to me and mine.

Here's my primary example of an argument I got into. I just started college this year. I'd been out of school for 7 years - lived in the "real world," had jobs, rented my own house, established and maintained a relationship, got married, and had a child (plus the other various ups and downs we all go through as adults.) within those 7 years. I have accumulated some life experience, basically. I don't claim to be some wise elder by any means, or even to carry a shred of wisdom in comparison to my elders, but I know what's going on. Anyway. My first college assignment was to write a narrative essay on a deeply emotionally charged issue that I have personally experienced. This essay was to be put on a compare/contrast basis as well. So, I wrote about the differences between how my child acts because of consistent parenting and how a friend of mine's child acts because of inconsistent parenting. I know I said I wouldn't step on people's toes here - and trust me, I tried not to. I will save you further back story by simply stating that after conversing with my professor, he strongly urged that I write on this topic.

So, I wrote it. I belong to a fairly tight-knit group on a message board, so I posted it there to get some feedback before I had to turn it in. In my essay, I discussed some of the various behavioral issues that myself and my friend both have dealt with in our 3 year olds. I walked through the basic problem in each, and the solution in each, discussing the differences in our parenting styles and consistency. The end result in each illustration was that my daughter has a tendency to follow direction more frequently because the results are mroe frequently the same, whereas my friend's child followed direction much less frequently because the result was very rarely the same. And I merely cited specific issues that I personally witnessed. I didn't point fingers, and I certainly did not state (nor did I imply) that my friend's child is a "bad kid." In fact, I pointed out quite the opposite. He's a fine child; he's sweet and compassionate, he's bold and he knows what he wants (as much as a 3 year old can, at least.) My praise for the child was abundant throughout the essay. It was merely comparing and contrasting behavior based upon consistency in parenting.

Most of the responses were nice, constructive critcism. "Your thesis statement is a little unclear - could you patch it up a bit?" and things of the like. However, one woman who had only recently joined the group was highly offended by my stance on consistency. She claimed that I was "malnourishing my child's inner-need to be artistic and express herself" because I took her crayons away when she colored on my bedroom wall. The woman didn't ever actually point out a decent argument against consistent parenting, she just simply bashed me for disciplining my child and instating rules in my home. Some of the points this woman made did make some sense, but their foundation was shaky. One such example is the need for artistic expression. While I wholeheartedly agree that everyone, children especially, need an outlet of some sort, I also believe that if it's against the rules to color on the walls and my child does so, I should punish her for it. I believe that just as much as I believe that if I am spray painting the side of a building I don't own and have no permission to be doing so, chances are I'm going to have to face some sort of legal reprecussion.

So, I'm sure that it seems that I have veered off track here. And, to an extent, I guess I have. I'm really just trying to establish my views on consistency. I do apologize if the last part of that sounded ranty. Keep in mind, I'm still new to this, and if you happen to still be reading after all this, I thank you!

I had more I intended on saying, but perhaps it's best that I leave something for tomorrow. 

Again, comments and constructive critcism is not only welcomed but requested! So, please let me know how I'm doing, what I'm doing right, what I could be working on!