Being Kendra Read Free

argument and protect the baby. I don’t want baby Hank to have bad memories of his parents fighting; I don’t think there’s any way to erase that. I will always remember my father’s rage when my parents fought or the time he punched a hole through the wall. I will never get that out of my head. I don’t want that for baby Hank. I always want to make sure he has nothing but happy memories. Life isn’t perfect. I know there will be times where Hank sees us fighting, but I want to do my best to limit it. I am always aware. As much as I might want to fight in that moment, it’s not worth it for baby Hank’s sake.
    Hank Jr. deserves the best chance possible. He’s got more of an advantage than Hank and I had combined. My teachers sucked, my friends were as bad as me, and my mom was working all the time. So I’m not letting that happen to baby Hank; I’m guiding him through his childhood. I’m his guardian angel. But I also know that makes me a bit of a control freak.
    People are afraid of everything. The reality is there probably isn’t so much to worry about. We remember all of the bad things happening in the news and on TV, and we’re scared. It’s a natural reaction, but it affects our everyday life and how our kids perceive the world. It’s either a wonderful place full of opportunity or a scary place. I say, turn off the damn TV, get off the Internet, and just let your kids be kids.
    I remember when I was a kid and I had only twenty-one channels on my TV, and that was more than enough. We had lots of news, Nickelodeon, and MTV (which I was banned from watching until junior high), and then we had VH1 and E! and HBO. Having only those channels made me appreciate it more when a movie came on every Saturday night on HBO. With so few options, I was bored just staying inside. It made me go outside and enjoy life. Now we have thousands of channels and too many options!
    Hank and I had very similar childhoods and we talk about it all the time. We liked the same sports, watched the same shows, and shared a love for Pogs. Now that I know that Hank collected them too, I’m sure on the same day at the same time we were both playing Pogs. And we both had so much fun playing outside. That’s what we want for little Hank. Even though my teenage years sucked and Hank went through hard times too, we are so thankful for our childhoods. We both just loved running around playing tag, playing softball, building forts—that was a real childhood. It’s because of those experiences that we are so passionate about giving Hank Jr. the best childhood he can have. Which to us means freedom and exploring. Of course, we are teaching him his left and right and things like don’t cross the street before looking both ways—the commonsense stuff. But everything else we just want him to explore on his own. If he falls, he falls. We are going to let him figure it out for himself.
    When Hank Jr. cries we don’t always run to him if it’s not serious. We want him to gain a sense of independence and not always look to us for help. I don’t want him to think that we are always looking over his shoulder spying on him or that we’ll always be there when he falls. Hopefully we will, but it’s not a guarantee.
    We’re still adjusting to life in the suburbs, and we are desperate to find him a playdate. Of course, Kourtney Kardashian and I have talked about playdates. But in the year and a half since our kids have been born it’s still yet to happen. We both have busy work schedules and travel back and forth between New York and L.A. Now that we’re both living in Calabasas we will hopefully end up doing it soon.
    As a parent—wait, who am I kidding? In life!—I rarely do anything by the book, but I try to follow my natural instincts as a mother and do what I think is best for baby Hank. There are so many differing philosophies out there on parenting, nutrition, bedtimes, you name it. It’s hard to know what to do and which is best for