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To be the perfect parent, you must have the perfect children. And, of course, I did! Who else has children that never talk back, do everything that I say, act perfectly in school on a daily basis and eat whatever is put in front of them. Yes, you guessed it, I am raising robots. Robots disguised as my "perfect" children.

Of course I am kidding but I promise that there are days that I wish that I was the perfect parent with the perfect children. I remember when my first was born; he came out beautiful and perfect (untouched) and I had all of these crazy ideas in my head about how wonderful and easy life would be and how I would do so many things differently from my parents.

I vowed to never allow my children to leave the house dirty or unkempt. For this particular perfect parent this vow did last two weeks. When you are trying to exist on two (maybe three) hours of sleep a night the perfect outfit and washed face just does not seem that important. So maybe this one idea did not come to fruition but I knew that I could still be perfect.

I then vowed to never yell at my children and to always speak calmly. I wanted to make sure that my children understood my frustration without my voice levels scaring them into submission. Then I had a two year old who ran away from me in a parking lot. My goodness did I scare him into submission. But I could still be perfect, as long as I did not yell again and I made sure that my children listened without raising my voice. Children do age and when three came around I no longer cared about raising my voice. I bragged about never having a "terrible two" and three came along and bit me in the ass. My oldest tried to smother his new sister, wrestle with her or in general dump her on the front porch. The yelling began!

OK, so I yelled a little and the children did not always look perfect, I could still create good "perfect" meals every night and make sure that my children were well fed and healthy. Do you know how many chicken nuggets a child can eat and how many nights a week they can eat them? This is all they wanted and I was so scared that both of them were starving (a "perfect" parent does not allow their child to die of starvation)that I gave in and let them eat chicken nuggets and my wonderful, home cooked meals ended up in the trash.

So that was it. I had failed. I was not going to be "perfect". My children were going to get dirty, they were going to misbehave and I would have to discipline them and they were going to eat what they wanted no matter how hard I tried. What had happened to all of my lofty ideas?

Now that my children are older I have come to terms with the idea that perfection is impossible. I actually have good children (not great all of the time) and I am proud of the fact that they are turning into good people. I think the idea that we have to be "perfect" is sadistic and improbable. A "perfect" parent is one that listens, pays attention, disciplines when needed, cooks their favorite foods and loves them unconditionally. Well look at that I am a "perfect" parent (most of the time)!

Learn more about this author, MC Allen.
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