Pink shares the (very) real questions she asks herself about raising her kids

Pink has always been open about the challenges of motherhood, and for moms of more than one, reading her latest Instagram post might feel a bit like reading your own mind.

“I feel like I had it all figured out when she was younger. When it was just her. Now that there’s two, and such different ages, I feel flustered so much of the time,” she wrote on Instagram.

Mom to 6-year-old Willow and 1-year-old Jameson, Pink says she (like so many of us mamas) has more questions than answers in this stage of Willow’s life. Things are still pretty simple with Jameson as Pink and her husband Carey Hart have been through the toddler phase once already, but as Willow grows, the parenting challenges are new and more complex and Pink admits she worries a lot.

“The older she gets the less clear I am on how to guide her. Do I take the raw honest tough way? Do I cuddle her and tell her to not to worry? Do I let her be sassy knowing I want her to be strong and need her to be strong to survive in this world? Of course, but how do you interject subtlety and kindness?”

Pink has previously said that while her own childhood was pretty free-range, she’s been taking a more hands-on approach with her own kids, believing in letting them know that she’s there for them while setting boundaries. “I always tell Willow, ‘I’m going to teach you the rules so that you’ll know how and when to break them,'” she told People.

Willow has rules, but she also has some freedom (obviously, she rides her bike in the house sometimes) and Pink is hoping that by grounding her kids in kindness, they’ll make the right decisions when they are eventually out on their own.

According to Harvard researchers, modeling kindness is one of the most important ways parents can instill that value in their children, and it’s pretty clear that Pink is doing that. Last year Pink found herself crying in a grocery store with a fellow mama who felt judged herself and was inspired by Pink’s social media honesty.

A really sweet Mama came up 2me tonight at the grocery store and told me some nice words about how she gets strengt… https://t.co/MTxhKbCVGF

— P!nk (@Pink)
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In the tweet, Pink wrote, “A really sweet Mama came up 2 me tonight at the grocery store and told me some nice words about how she gets strength from my parenting cause I’m not afraid to mess up in public.”

If a star taking the time to cry with a stranger in the grocery store isn’t kind than I don’t know what is. Pink continued: “It’s so hard. Y’all. I wish us mamas could give ourselves and each other a break.”

We do too. Raising two children of two different ages is so hard, and it’s a challenge when your parenting problems move from the realm of nap schedules and pacifiers to the subtle art of teaching strength and empathy.

Parenting isn’t easy, but Pink’s posts prove that we all have questions, that none of us know exactly what we’re doing at all times, and that when we’re doubting ourselves, we mamas can and should turn to each other.

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