Passive Parenting

I am a passive parent. I was told this while attending yoshi's baby shower. Her older, wise, sister- a mother with experience made this pronouncement. At first I took it as an insult. I'm constantly doing, working, making Pook's perfect world and it feels anything but passive. However, a recent event confirmed that yes, I am a passive parent.

At the baby shower Pook only fell out once (which is great). And what did this passive parent do? Well, I fell back in my chair glanced at my imaginary watch to make sure I would only give myself five minutes while Pook cried. Pook, looking like a loud fish out of water flipped flopped on the floor as I said, "great a five minute nap for me." And I closed my eyes and was prepared to sleep out Pook's tantrum. But, I was at someone else's house being watched. You are a passive parent was the declaration. At which point I grabbed Pook and followed her around as she spilled all kinds of liquids on the carpet (sorry).

I'm thinking this passive parenting statement over in my head at least a thousand times as we finish out the rest of our visit and head back home. But because I think toooo much, once home I put in Denzel's movie Deja Vu to relax. The video is already overdue. Two-day rentals are really biased toward single parents. Do you know how much never gets done in two days? Using newmommy vision, I'm mostly watching the movie and mostly watching Pook rediscover everything we left all over the house before our trip. And I notice that my half unpacked bag is on the couch, tempting Pook. She grabs two hair products (new mind you) and I'm like whatever, she can't get the top off. And while I'm thinking who is this Halle Berry rip off Denzel is supposedly falling in love with through some time travel voyueristic television screen and hey that's Erica from living single and the cosby show and I would have brought this storyline better if they cast Nia Long (have Nia and Denzel done a flic together?) if they want to go with the whole older guy/young woman hook-up, when I hear the toilet flush. Shit. Pook where are you? Of course she isn't potty trained (cuz I'm passive) so why is she flushing the toilet? My hair products are missing. Shit. Oh no she didn't. Yes she did! While I was passive parenting. I mean watching Denzel. I mean viewing Deja Vu my new hair products disappeared and my toliet became backed up.

I really don't want to be a passive parent. It's really just a nice way of saying "lazy". And as I confided in my mother awhile back, lots of bad parenting is just being lazy. By this logic, I'm a bad parent. NOOOOOO!

Please God, reform me of my passive parenting.