what makes a good parent?

It's close to midnight as I sit here typing on my blog. I am baking oatmeal chocolate chip muffins to pack in my children's lunches tomorrow. Yes...I know...I'm a great Mom!

It's tough to be a "good" parent because every parent has their own definition of "good". I have had friends put me on a pedestal saying I have endless patience, do so many crafts with my kids, volunteer in all of their classes at school. I look at parents who work full time outside the home and wonder how in the world they do it! Where do they get their energy and how do they manage to get it all done?

Tonight, I'm not feeling like a great parent. No, I didn't lose it with one of my kids (which I really hate doing). It's what I heard one of my daughter's dance teachers said to her last week during a dance practise. They were learning choreography to a Miley Cyrus song, shaking their hips at one point and then rolling their shoulders in another and the teacher told them to look "sexy". When I heard this tonight from another trio Mom, I felt like throwing up. My stomach has been churning for the hours since dance finished for the evening.

These girls are 8 and 9 years old, not anywhere near womanhood and being sexy. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue for this young teenage dance instructor to say, but totally inappropriate in my opinion. It has resurfaced my dislike of the competitive dance world...and both of my daughters are competitive dancers. When I used to watch the shows, before we entered the competitive world of dance, I didn't understand why they had to put so much make-up on the young dancers, why some of the dance moves were inappropriate and how offensive it was to hear adults it the audience cat calling the young girls on the stage. I liked our studio because the girls were dancing to age appropriate songs and still looked like young girls on stage.

But now I find myself questioning...is the studio really different, or did I just become immune to what was going on. Am I damaging my daughter's self image having them in competitive dance? Am I blowing this way out of proportion?

Even though the muffins are made, I still need to decide what I will do about this comment, and ask my daughter about the conversation. It's not just what you do for your children that makes you a good parent. It's how you deal with and help them through situations life throws their way. Maybe the comment didn't affect my daughter at all...but I'm going to find out.