Let's Get Physical

It is hard to parent.

It is harder when you have no physical power.

I can't pick up my kids, to love or to discipline them. I can't put them in timeout if they won't go willingly. I couldn't put them in their room to nap until they went on their own. When they fight, I can't get them off one another easily. I can't get them into their carseats unless they help.

Sure, some would say the lack of physical power is healthy, that parenting shouldn't be about physical power and coercion. Might doesn't make right. And intellectually, I absolutely believe and aspire to that.

But sometimes, when you can't reason, or rationalize, or convince a two-and-a-half year old, you need to be able to move them.** And I can't do that right now. And they know it.

And I'm losing.

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**I'm not talking about hitting, spanking, shaking, dragging, pulling or other physical violence here. I don't do that. I don't think it's right. Ever. I'm not a relativist when it comes to physical violence. I'm mainly talking about picking up an unwilling child, which I can't do.

I can't even pick up a willing one.