Do you need to be validated?

Sometimes I find this whole parenting gig to be quite difficult. Now that Ciara is getting older (and more sassy), I find that I actually have to do more PARENTING than just hanging out and listening and having fun.

I think my biggest failures as a parent come in the form of validation and sympathy. Now don't get me wrong, Ciara knows that I will love her, and that she will always be my first priority in life - no matter what. So her position as the centre of MY universe is not the problem. It's the rest of the world I'm concerned about.

I also lack the skill of mustering up the necessary sympathy for the scraped knee. Six hours after it happened. When it wasn't sore when it hurt, but it magically is now that it's been cleaned, and she's seen that it is in fact a scrape, and not just dirt. I'm like 'Ciara, it didn't hurt when it happened', and she's 'but mom I didn't know it was a scrape then.' and then she looks at me like I'm and idiot. Because it's perfectly logical that something didn't hurt when you thought it was dirt, but now that you know it's a scrape it must logically hurt. WTF?
Then I muster up the best 'eina' face I can and say 'Oh poor baby' because I don't know what the hell else to do.

I won't get into the incessant talking. Sometimes I actually have to say 'Ciara, for the love of all things sane and pretty, please just stop talking for like 5 minutes'. And then I feel really crappy. Because what kind of parent tells their kid to shut up? But it's not like she listens to me. She just rolls her eyes and gives me the 'whatever' look, and picks up right where she left off. It's a skill, often leaving me wondering if the 25 seconds before really happened, or were just a figment of my imagination.

Overall, I really quite enjoy this crazy, confusing and metamorphic job I was thrust into. She's quite a peach that little one. I think I'll keep her.