There is nothing on this
planet, or any other planet I presume, that can prepare us for the incredibly
difficult job that is parenting. No course, no book, nor any documentary can
fully encompass the day-to-day-to-day grind that becomes your life once that
wiggly, bouncing, bundle of joy enters the picture. Whether you birth the child
or adopt, becoming a parent is like slamming into a wall at nine thousand miles
an hour without a seatbelt. Or an airbag. Or an emergency plan. One moment you
are you, and the next moment you are…. something entirely else. It is
exhilarating, tiring, emotional, and altogether something new that only
experience can teach us.
You take this tiny specimen
and fumble through each step of keeping them alive and safe from one phase to
the next, hoping that somewhere along the way you are teaching them proper
principles, tools, and a healthy amount of respect. You pray that there are few
bumps, bruises, and illnesses along the way, with a healthy dose of “please
don’t let them repeat that” if something undesirable slips from your tongue.
Hey. It happens. Even to the
best of us.
Then, suddenly you look up and
that spit-up prone infant is an “independent” teenager, who then turns to you
and is grown. They become free-thinking, self-guided humans that should be
moving on to the next phase in their lives- one that inevitably should not
involve much parenting from you….
Should,
being the operative word. Sometimes maybe they are too comfortable…
I read an article online today
that, if you are a parent- especially a parent of older children- will make you
smile. A Japanese couple gifted their 20 year old son the certificate of a
lifetime: A Notice of Expiration of
Child-Rearing Services.
Yes. You read that correctly.
They hereby declared their duties of raising a child to be complete, citing
that their son was now expected to be “a proper, excellent member of society.”
These parents decided twenty years was plenty of time for him to become a fully
functioning adult capable of caring for himself. I think I have to agree.
Remember back when you were
almost an adult? I bet most of us couldn’t wait
to move away from home. Turning eighteen, getting a crappy apartment or
dorm room without mom and dad’s supervision? Wasn’t that the dream?
When did the dream die? What
have parents done to this newer generation who, if we’re honest, is failing to launch? Yep, just like that
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey movie, as it turns out: many kids
just aren’t ready, or even willing, to leave the nest.
Which leaves me to wonder: are
we too good as parents or not good enough? When does tough love
become too tough? When does taking care of our children become enabling them? And
who gets to be the judge of that?
However it happens, there is a
healthy amount of respect for those young men and women who choose to take the
path of joining the military. Leaving home and submersing yourself into a
culture that is probably none too familiar, just after high school, and vowing
to listen to the orders of some commanding officer… that takes some sort of
belief in self, right? To me it does.
Hmmm. I wonder if some of our
military members received some sort of “certificate of kiddo completion” that
prompted their direction. Hey, kudos on them. It beats wandering aimlessly and
living in your parent’s basement!
View
article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mom-and-dads-letter-of-resignation-on-sons-20th-birthday-will-tickle-parents-everywhere_561d1c66e4b0c5a1ce6089a2
~A
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