How Many Parent Points Did You Earn Today?

Parenting is HARD. It’s harder than completing a Rubik’s Cube. Harder than ignoring the garlic bread at a BBQ and opting for lots of salad instead.  Harder than keeping up with the latest developments in Katie Price’s life. So it’s important that we reward ourself for the small wins, each day. How? With Parent Points. It’s a simple concept – we earn Parent Points when we successfully do certain tasks when looking after our children. Keep a tally – stick it on your fridge, and feel smug each evening when you see how AWESOME you really are.

Give yourself one parent point when you:

• Successfully navigate your baby or toddler into a wooden restaurant high chair in one swift movement. (What is it about those things? You need to have the child at a very precise angle…)
• Manage to keep enough milk for their morning cereal (and your cuppa.)

• Negotiate/distract your way out of a tantrum.
• Find somewhere to stop when you’re driving and your child announces they need a wee, and get the child to the toilet before they wet themselves. Bonus point if it’s a poo.
• Get your child dressed quickly and smoothly, with no protestations or declarations of hatred towards the t-shirt you’ve suggested.
• Get the names of all of Peppa Pig’s friends (and their parents) right, when quizzed by your child.
• Manage to use your psychic powers to guess that your child wants their toast cut into squares (NOT triangles) despite them not telling you this.
• Remember to pack everything you need for a day out: water cup, hat, favourite toy, snack. WIN.
• Find matching socks for your child to wear in the morning.
• Leave a restaurant after a meal and there isn’t enough food littered under your table and chairs to feed a whole school.
• Hear your child say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ without being prompted. (Hello, parent of the year…)
• Get your child to walk from A to B quickly, when you’re in a real rush (why do they always dawdle and stop to look at ants… and stones… and a discarded crisp packet… when you’re in a hurry?)
• See them eating a portion of vegetables… without any bribing prompting.
• Peel those Octonauts stickers off your lovely wooden dresser without leaving half of each one behind.
• Avoid laughing when you tell your child off and they do something genuinely funny in response. Must-keep-straight-face.
• Get to the end of the day, having achieved two out of the following: done some laundry, washed the dishes, moved toys so that they’re not directly in everyone’s path, paid a bill, made an organisational phone call, vacuumed. (Any more than two and you’re just showing off – deduct a point.)

How many Parent Points have you earned today?