Doing what's best

Big brother has been doing fantastic in his potty training.  Of course, now that I've said it out loud, he'll relapse.  That's Murphy's Law, right?  Anyway.  # 2 still continues to evade him.  But he'll get there.  For the most part, he's wearing regular underwear.  Including to preschool and church last week!  Huge, my friends.  Huge!  We fasted this week about what to do about Kindergarten.  We are still feeling that he should do preschool for one more year.  This decision has sure been tough.  We just want to do what's best for him. I am grateful that we can receive revelation for our family.  The choices that we make may not be what's best for someone else's family.  There is not a one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone.  We have felt directed all along with big brother and little sister's delays.  With all of our children, really.  Because the government is pushing preschool so much, there have been a lot of articles on the subject.  I've read a lot of opinions both ways.  Every kid should go to preschool.  Not true - I know lots of kids that excelled at home better than they probably would have at a preschool.  But I also have seen circumstances where the parents both have to work, or there's a single parent.  It's not ideal, but let's face it.  Not everyone lives the ideal.  Those kids do benefit from the early education programs, because sometimes it's all they get.  Or the opinion that parents should be the ones doing the teaching.  I completely agree.  However, these are blanket statements.  I dislike those.  It was very apparent with my special needs kiddos that my skill set as a mother was not enough.  Would they have eventually caught up?  Probably.  But what nobody can understand unless they have actually been through it is the absolute frustration that comes on both sides.  Have you ever looked into a small child's face and seen absolute fear and confusion there?  Now imagine that happening All. The. Time.  It's heartbreaking to want to explain what's happening to your child and to have them just get more upset because they are becoming more confused.  The preschool programs my children have participated in have created absolute miracles.  I am grateful every day that there are people trained to help these little ones.    I consider myself to be intelligent, and I have 4 kids that I have raised all the same way.  2 of them were advanced.  2 of them were delayed.  And so we pray and fast and ultimately do what is best for our family.  And appreciate that other families may do something different and that is what is best for their family.  We should really recognize that and give each other a break.  Wow, didn't really intend to get on a soap box today!  Guess I'll get down now...