(This is written by Footywife)

“I am a selfish boy” – my little son told me that the other day.

It pains my heart to hear that.  It is one thing to tell a child that his action is selfish and quite another to hear the child regurgitating the same sentiment about himself.  When my little son said that, a sense of guilt just swept over me for making him feel this way about himself.

And this is not the only thing he makes me feel guilty about.  The other day he told me “only you smack me!”.  That’s of course not true.  I just smack him more often than his papa given that I spend 24/7 with him.  But the accusation makes me feel guilty and left me wondering if I am smacking him too often?

And whenever he makes me so angry that I lost it and started roaring at him, I will no doubt be plagued by a guilty conscience after that.  “Mama, you scream at me two times already” was what he told me few days ago.

Parenting, they say, gets tougher as the child gets older.  I am beginning to experience the truth behind the statement.

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