Being a Parent isn’t Always Rainbows and Unicorns

I sometimes find it hard to believe that I’ve been a parent for almost 16 years. It seems like yesterday I was only thinking about having kids and now my oldest will be able to drive soon.

Being a parent has its ups and downs as all parents know. My ex-husband and I always joke that we didn’t read the fine print of the contract when we had kids. That the cute little babies would grow up to be a pre-teen and then a teen. The ages most difficult to get through and keep your sanity.

If we had known what we were getting in to….hmmm…..we may have made a different decision.

Just kidding. 

Well not always.

Parenting is HARD.

I actually looked forward to the day when my kids got older. So they’d be more independent. Why didn’t anyone tell me that was a stupid thought. The more independent they become the scarier it gets as a parent. 

They talk back.
They want to be independent.
They make poor decisions from lack of experience.
They think you’re the stupid one and won’t listen.
They roll their eyes.
They think money grows on trees.

It’s a good thing God made them cute or the human race might die out. 

While parenting isn’t easy it’s so rewarding that the not so easy times are quickly forgotten. Until you freak out when you realize you’re raising these human beings from infancy to adult. Where you want them to be productive members of society.

It’s a lot of responsibility being a parent. You do your best and hope that they turn out realizing their full potential. You hope that they go on to be happy adults with families of their own. Enjoying life and all it has to offer.

During the rough times, you have to remember you are the adult, the role model. You need to practice parenting with patience and understanding.

I’ve been telling myself this a lot lately as recent months have been some of the more challenging ones as a parent. Kids have so many more challenges than I did 30 years ago. But then I also feel there is a bigger sense of entitlement and that life should be easy. Maybe not for everyone but I get that sense from my kids sometimes. 

As a parent, I want to make their life easy. I want them to have everything they want but that doesn’t build character. So at what point is enough too much. How many hard knocks will build character as opposed to tearing it down?

How, as a parent, do you find that balance? 

How do you reconcile making them independent knowing they will be out on their own soon enough but wanting to take care of them for as long as you can?

I wish there was an easy answer. If you ahem one please let me know. Until then I’ll keep telling myself that I’m doing my best and that’s all I can do.

That’s all us parents can do!

 

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