El Nino's Big Adventure

Parenting 101: negotiation and the art of compromise. El's dad and I have different styles of parenting. And we have differing views as to how to go about certain aspects of raising el. Right now it seems to be around how to handle nighttime sleeping.

We have an interesting dynamic in our family. El's dad is the primary caregiver as he takes care of el during the day. Consequently, mom does not dictate how to manage the daytime. Nighttime is mom's domain. Or is it?

I spoke to a friend yesterday about this very topic, and she gave me some excellent advice. She suggested I go about my strategy and let dad go about his strategy and continue to have conversations about it. She said I had to realize it's all a process. Yes, that makes sense, a process. As el's dad and I are first-time parents, we are just beginning this process. We each have 10 months of parenting under our belts. I don't think either one of us is trying to bend the other to their will. And we certainly both have el's best interests at heart. We just have different ways of going about it, different ideas about what is best, and different strategies for how to move through the process.

This is a new and challenging era in our marriage. We were married for 11 years before el came on the scene. We had the "childless couple" thing down - so down, in fact, that we were probrably a little bored by it. Now it's a whole new world and oh what a world it is.