Kelly Gibbons, artist and writer, about me

Monday, March 01, 2004

This weekend something hit me. I have great kids in spite of me. What I mean by that is I find it remarkable that I have such great kids even though I have no idea what I'm doing. I have been winging it for seventeen years and it is turning out fine.

I have to be honest here, I didn't read baby books. They bored and confused me. The only one I was even remotely interested in was a baby name book, and I didn't even use the advice given there. My children's names came from different sources.

My husband chose Brian. When he was twelve, his best friend was run over by a truck and died. He swore if he ever had a son he would name him after his friend. How do you argue with that?

Kelci was chosen because I saw it on a mural on the wall of the maternity wing. As soon as I saw it I knew this was my first daughter's name. My little star.

Now, I feeling very bad about this one. I don't have a cute or heart warming story for Michelle's name. She was almost the nameless child. My husband and I couldn't agree on anything. Finally one night he said "What about Michelle?" and I didn't hate it so it stuck.

Before I get any lectures about Michelle's self esteem. STOP! She's OK with this and I have thought about making up a story about her name. "Oh, I love France and I wanted to name you something that reminded me of it..," But why lie. Her story is funny in its own way. The name is perfect for her anyway--I always picture someone very feminine, very beautiful when I hear that name.

OK enough of the name game, back to my original thought. Maybe the best things happen when you just let them happen. From the beginning I just did what I thought was right. When they were babies and they cried I figured out why and fixed the problem. As they got older I taught them what I thought was right. I taught them to be good and honest and fair. I taught them to share, work hard, and follow their heart. I told them to be respectful of everyone and to treat others how they would want to be treated.

I have made mistakes. I say I'm sorry and we move on. I'm have not been perfect and neither have they, and in spite of this we are doing great. I am not saying that my parenting ways are the best. They work for me and my family and that's what matters.

I have found my greatest successes have happened by accident, usually when I do something for fun. When I think about things and read all the rules and do things a certain way because I'm supposed to, I find that I am so busy trying to do it right that it comes out very wrong.

This week my goal is to let things happen, do things for fun and just see what happens. Wish me luck.

posted by Kelly @ 3/01/2004 08:19:00 AM

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