Push Parent Vs. Push-Over Parent: Where Do We Draw The Line?

I. Swear. I'm going to be more consistent with blog posts.

It's been almost 2 years. Yikes! 

Personally. From my experience of being a parent of not so little kids anymore, there is no greater struggle than when you are trying to pave the road to the right direction with a strong foundation.

Lately, the struggle has been being the strong disciplinarian parent vs. the loving and nurturing parent. Is there really a balance between the two?

Here's the struggle:

It's much more fun and less stressful to have fun with my kids than argue with them about doing homework and chores. Deep down I understand that these "rules" are what children need and is crucial for the foundation of the adults that I hope they will become. But do I want to be that parent that my child will look back in his adulthood as the parent that was THE parent that pushed too hard? 

Last week was Parent Conferences for the younger boys and though my children aren't failing, they are struggling in certain areas. After talking with my husband, we decided that we needed to take away certain privileges so they could concentrate more on their education. By no means do we expect our children to be prodigies - we would never put that sort of pressure on our children if it didn't come naturally - but we do expect a level of interest and understanding.

Today was the first day back from the long weekend and after school, my youngest son and I got into this heated argument about computer time (one of the privileges taken away to keep him focused on studies). In my twisted thought process, I assumed he would automatically understand what was expected, you know? He'd willingly march his cute tushy up the stairs, crack open a book and start reading just for the heck of it and prove me wrong - Well, that back fired and resulted in him sitting in the middle of our stair way whispering rather loudly, "Mommy is a liar and is mean!"

... not going to lie. I was butt hurt. And I cried a little in the inside while my heart broke.

But I couldn't lose this battle, because then I'd be that Mommy that was a push over. No thank you.

So I let him have his little tantrum and then walked up to him and explained what my obviously genius plan was. In which he returned the ugliest stank eye I've seen in years from an offspring. Again. No thanks. So I sent him to his room where he hid under his bed pouting.

An hour later, he apologized. Did I win this battle? Or is this just the beginning.

You would think that the era of the Sleepless Nights of Babyhood or the Terrible Tantrum Battles were the breakthrough moments of parenthood. But honestly, as the boys get older I realize on a daily basis that I still have no freaking clue what I'm doing.

Seriously, every single time I win a battle I walk away thinking, "pfft! Child walk on. I'm one bad ass mutha.... crap! Now what????? Why!?!?!?!?!?!" And the cycle continues.

Parenting is a series of twist and turns, a cruel game of chicken, and the ultimate mental and emotional test in life. Only my children can take me from completely elated to down right confused in a matter of minutes.

Being a Push Parent or a Push-Over Parent both consist of wanting to protect your child from making bad decisions, but did it have to be so hard to choose between either or?