Parent of the Year
Current mood: 
accomplished
Category: Life
As a parent, I have my ideas and theories and bullshit that I've used to raise my kids. I love my job. I mean, I really love it. I had an idea what I was getting myself involved with but one never really knows until you're in the thick of it. However, I wanted to be a parent -- a mother -- since I was a kid. I knew I'd be really good at it. I dun know why or how I knew but I did. So, when people meet my kids and tell me they're awesome people, I'm proud but not surprised.
I know that I'm fucking them up some how. haha, I'm not perfect so I know some of my hangups leak out and trickle into them. I can do my best not to, but it's human nature. What I hope I've done is given them the tools to see the baggage I and others have and be able to look past that.
Anyways... parent of the year...
Parent of their lifetime actually - it never stops until you're dead so be prepared. haha
The biggest part of being a parent is the grunt work. Sure, we all love birthdays and special events and holiday and gifts and surprises and fun -- that's the gravy. It's being there when they hate you coz you won't let them go to Six Flags with friends whilst you're at work coz you know they're just gonna get dropped off and picked up later that night. It's having to effectively modify their behavior when you notice that it's gonna cause them suffering and disappointment currently and later in their life when you as a parent can only watch them live. It's showing them the balance of comfort versus overindulgence. yeah, it's a littlealot of tough love but it's love.
It's being real and realistic and showing them that when you make a mistake, you learn as much as you can. It's letting them see you struggle but get through it. It's showing your kids what life is about. Life isn't easy. Life is what you make of it. Life is love and hate. Life is new and old. Life has been reborn, remixed and done over and over and over. Life is what it is. Show them Life is challenge, change, growth, experience.
Life is a wonderful-beautiful-horrible -funny thing and it's great. This is the grunt work. It's the time a parent must take to help show this person you brought into the world how to be a HAPPY, well-balanced, productive member of society. No small feat! Any help given is a blessing and any hindrance, no matter who or what, makes an already hard job harder.*
Thing is, you don't know if you're gonna get the Parent of the Year award until it's bestowed upon you years later when your kids have moved out and fan their ass in your general direction. ha! You can't give yourself the honor, it is very much earned and it is a school of hardknocks being a parent. No instruction is structurally sound. What works for one may not for another. oh sure, consistency is key but blahblahblah. What really motivates and gets a person listening to your training?
Then add into the mix that as a parent, you have hopes, dreams, plans, wants - for yourself as well as your kids - still that person who wants to be hip, cool and avant-garde -- you gotta balance all that too.
But I love my job - the toughest job I'll ever love.
*Written in invisible ink: and you want to cuss them out ... and push them down steps. *wink*
 | Currently listening : Drinkin' and Thinkin' By Chris Daugherty Release date: 2003-03-20 |
Labels: Parent of the Year
posted by MobiusRazor @ 8:25:00 AM
