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I'm turning into my dad a little more every day and it's makes me proud and crazy at the same time. My parents were strict, sometmes a little too strict, but I think I'm better for it. I hope to have better control over my temper than my dad had. Sometimes I think he flew off the handle to quickly. I'm way more granola than my parents though. No sugar, no TV, extended breastfeeding. All in all, I hope I can be as awesome as they were.

There are things I want to do the same and a lot of things I want to do differently, but nothing I would 'blame' them for-- I know they did the best they could possibly do for us, and I'll do the same for my LOs. And my LOs will probably grow up and have a long list of things they think WE did wrong but hopefully they will know we did the best that we could.

However, things I think we will do differently are- more couple time away from kids (common theme here!), hopefully teaching them to clean better than I was taught (which is tough, since I'm sort of a slob if I'm not careful), taking them on interesting vacations for all of us, not just kid centric ones (after a certain age, of course), and DH will be a lot more involved than my dad was... but really, on the big things my parents got it right.

Largely, I really think my parents did an awesome job. My mom made a point of field trip Wednesdays every summer and during breaks, we did lots of arts and crafts, read tons etc. They were really good about having each other's backs too, although there was quite a bit of "go ask your mother/father" which now that I am an adult I get-- there are some things I care about and my husband doesn't and vice versa. They were really good about date nights, I know they made it a priority, I don't think it was even every week but it was often enough that it was just part of life.

I wish they had been a bit more strict and pushed me a bit harder but quite frankly I was a pretty easy kid and I had three younger siblings so I am pretty sure they had bigger things to worry about.

My husband's parents also did an awesome job, they have a great marriage and were on the same page. They were stricter about somethings then I agree with (but odd things-- like my dh stayed up the whole night before prom cleaning because he wasn't allowed to go unless his room was spotless, and I assure you his mom would have stuck to her word!)

I know his parents started a parenting group and read tons, I doubt they did cio with my dh but apparently he was an angel sleeper, his brothers might be another story though.

My mom told me that she gave my sister and brother cough medicine with codeine to make them sleep. Like even if they weren't sick/on the regular!

When I told her once that H kept waking up and crying when I tried to put her down every night, my mom said,"Can't you just shut the door and not go back in?"

Definitely two things I don't plan on doing!

It'll be interesting to see how DH and I parent when LO arrives.

My parents had 6 kids and both worked (although my mom did have years here and there where she was a SAHM) and owned a business on the side--and honestly, I feel like my parents were superhuman. My mom cooked dinner every night, she sewed, my dad fixed the cars and did all the lawn care and would often make us all breakfast. They never seemed....tired, like normal people are.

They both had hobbies and loved us and parented us, but didn't make us their entire world. My parents went on trips without us kids. I think they did a good job. I wish they would have pushed me in school harder---part of the pitfalls of a large family is the tendency to "pigeonhole" each kid into a certain role. And one of my older sisters was already the Type-A, straight A student, so it was like...I had to be something else. But everything else, I think they did a great job.

I have a "don't sweat the small stuff" attitude when it comes to parenting. I allow DS to wear what he likes to school. It doesn't always match, but he seems comfortable in it, and it's not against dress code, so I just let it go. My mom will see him and ask me why I let him out of the house like that. She was always so worried about how me and my brothers looked. I try not to do that with DS, cause I don't want him to be concerned with just looks.

That was just an example, but it's pretty much the difference in everything. DS is already a very particular kid, so anything I can get him to be laid back about, I encourage it. She's quite the opposite. She likes to care about every little thing.