A matter of trust in the parent

I am just posting a quickie before I go to bed. I've been meaning to post about this for a while but couldn't quite find the words. I don't know if I have them now but I will try.

Before I go to bed I go into Little Miss' room, pick her up and carry her through to the bathroom. There I pull down her PJs, sit her on teh toilet and softly say "have a wee darling". Little Miss then obliges, often muttering something unintelligible about trains, or monsters or one of her friends (she takes after both of us there), and then I re-dress her and carry her back to bed.

This little ritual has served us well for quite a few months and has kept the bed dry. If fact one night I was up a bit late and she woke herself up, wandered through to the bathroom and announced her intentions (luckily we are fairly open plan and heard what she was up to from downstairs). But anyhow, the nature of this post is the trust that she places in me and Daddy and how that plays out in daily life.

Could I, as I have pondered as I kneel on the bathroom floor balancing a sleeping child on one arm, take her into a different place (ie the kitchen) murmur the words and would she wee on the kitchen floor? How easy must it be for parents to spin a child into a world that we would find horrific, because they trust their parent / carer and they know no different.

The thought that often nearly overwelms me as I carry a half sleeping child back into her bed is what a huge responsibility we have, as parents, to create a safe and happy and challenging envoronment for our families. I could really screw her up.

A friend of mine is a fab mum, she won an award and everything, and the reason that she is such a positive parent is that her mother is a bitch who made her feel like dirt for the majority of her childhood and she never wants her daughter to fell the same way. In 20, 30, 50 years time what will Little Miss think of her parents.

What do you think about your parents?