Anya and I had one of those bad parenting days yesterday. An errand for work was going to take me near some stores that Anya and I needed to go to look for some items we need for our upcoming trip to Florida, but running the errands when we did was going to come right in the middle of Parker's nap. We contemplated running the errands later, but for some reason, opted against that plan. We just hoped that we could get her out of the house and into the car without waking her up.

No such luck. As soon as the door opened, she was up. And I don't know if its just Parker or what, but once she's up, she's up. There is no getting back to sleep with her. Last night, Parker woke up while we were getting ready for bed and spent the next 30-45 minutes squirming around.

We both felt really bad for waking her up from her nap, although she didn't really seem to mind all that much. But that parental guilt only compounded as we drove. It was just one of those things where I blew things out of proportion and I started wondering just how good of a job that we were doing as Parker's parents.

I guess parenting is like that. If you do a good job at work, you get raises and pats on the back. You hit a home run at a baseball game and you get applause. Even Mario and Luigi get coins. But you don't really get much of anything when you're doing a good job at parenting. Seeing your baby's smile and generally good disposition can only go so far in soothing my (sometimes) parenting anxiety.

I'm not writing this post in an attempt to get a pat on the back. I don't need validation that Anya and I are doing a good job as Parker's parents. Yesterday was just one of those days where nothing seemed to work.

Besides, any validation that we're doing a good job was given to us by this woman that we passed in the Target parking lot. We were waiting to turn left into the side parking lot at Target, but this slowly moving car prevented us from doing so. So I waited and waited as this car took its time to get out of the way. As the car passed, we looked inside and saw a TWO-YEAR OLD baby sitting on the driver's lap.

We were flabbergasted. Just absolutely floored. As Anya said, any doubts we were having about our parenting skills just drove right on by.

The world works like that sometimes. One minute you're second guessing whether giving your child graham crackers is actually teaching your child to snack on sugary items, the next you're passing a woman pouring Coca-Cola into her toddler's bottle.

- Matt