The Peter Principle of Parenting
The Peter Principle is the idea, first formulated for business, that people rise to the level of their incompetence. Most mornings I struggle with the clashes between my sons, 3yo Drake and 15mo Guppy, plus try to meet my basic needs, like breakfast and coffee. Both are either lukewarm or stone cold by the time I get to them.
A friend of a friend (and mother of an only child) once remarked that parents find out how many kids are too many for them after the fact. It’s best to be cautious and not assume that one is having kids, plural. I think about this remark a lot lately, as well as the Peter Principle, and wonder if two kids put me in over my head.
Maybe it’s their ages, maybe it’s their developmental stages, maybe it’s just me. I’m muddling along as best I can, reading Siblings without Rivaly and Raising a Thinking Child. Having a second child, like having the first one, was a huge life change with dramatic impact, both physical and emotional. Some friends say things get better, others say they merely become harder in different ways. Hope and self-learning–they’ve pulled me through life, and they’re pulling me through the screaming and fighting that makes up so much of parenting for me right now.