Parenting - It’s A Tough Job

Most people long to have a Brady Bunch type of Family where everybody obviouly loves each other and life is just so perfect. Unfortunately, rare is it that we achieve that. Instead we have parents who don’t really know how to be parents, children who believe they know everything and make better parents, interfering but well meaning relatives and friends, and a whole lot of confusion.

Parenting really isn’t easy. No one is ever really completely ready for the impact of having this new life in their hands. No matter how many books you read or how much baby sitting you’ve done, when it is your own child, you can get frantic over the littlest things. You watch them as they sleep, counting their breaths and hoping that all is well.

As they grow up the peer pressure increases and we as parents can only pray that we armed them well for the onslaught of temptations of sex, drug and violence. We pray that we raised them right and with a strong respect for self such that they can resist these bad influences and make it through to becoming adult without those unnecessary painful experiences. 

Parenting isn’t easy, and for some it can be thankless. Still, in the end there is nothing that compares to the hug of your daughter when she comes home from school or the moment when she walks down the aisle on your arm. Nothing can replace the moment when she says thanks for taking care of us, mom and dad. And if they never say it, does it matter? As long as you’ve done your best and they grow up good people, then the job is well done. Just wait. Someday they’ll be parents themselves and then they’ll understand.