If you look at today, right now one might think "oh my gosh your child still can not put themselves to sleep," or "oh my gosh your child can not behave." In my book book they discuss expecting "Progress not Perfection" in your spirited child. Yes my child still can not put himself to sleep, but if you look back at one year ago this time our bedtime routine took HOURS that included bath, lotion/massage, nursing to sleep with white noise on, slowly moving to a rocker, rocking for 5-10 minutes, and then moving his rocker into our room. Just before his birthday it was bath, then bottle while rocking, rocking to a deep deep sleep and then moving to his crib. Still took a long time. These days we have made huge PROGRESS which includes sometimes being able to just relax him to a state of almost sleep, lay him down and he goes to sleep maybe 30% of the time. He actually wants to sleep in his crib now, as opposed to sleeping on us all the time. This is amazing PROGRESS!
So I guess my point being instead of looking for perfection in your children or striving to make a "perfect" child who does "perfect" things, look back at how much your child has learned over just the last few months, how much they have grown. This is how you should measure yourself as a parent: not how perfect your child is or how perfect of a parent you think you are, but how perfectly your child is learning and growing. After all life is all about learning and growing, whether you are one or a hundred and one.
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