Parenting Debrief

Raising kids is tough work. Nobody has ever told me anything different. I love it and I hate it. It makes me crazy and it brings me life.


But right now, the man and I are in this crazy in between where we have a couple of adults, still depending on us. Fledglings, if you will, in this world. Then there are a couple of teenaged girls right at their heels, God help us. And finally, we have two tiny people who we are learning more and more about how we still don't know all there is to know about this whole parenting thing.


The older ones are at that place where they want to "help" us to be better parents. You know, giving us advice and constructive criticism. I cannot lie, it hurts. I remember doing the same thing to my own momma and if you're reading this mom, hear me, "I'm sorry." They only mean well as they reflect back on their own childhoods and through the lens of their own perception, point out what has produced the person they are now. The crazy thing that I didn't realize when I was sitting in their place, and what they don't even glimpse now is this: I'm still growing too. Until I die, I plan on growing and maturing and trying new things. There were even nights when I couldn't sleep and they were sleeping on the couch or at a friend's house and I would go and lay in each of their beds and pray that God would show me what it was like to be a kid in "my" house. That He would help me to be the kind of momma that they needed.


I realize that as parents we have an enormous responsibility to help to mold these individuals that God has placed in our care. I'm having to learn to give myself a break. Pray and work is an awesome motto when it comes to raising babies up. There will always be critics, there will also be kudos.


At the end, its not gonna really matter if we made it to Disney World, or made from scratch every one of their birthday cakes, or regulated their screen time properly. If they fear God and seek to do His Will, that's all this mom could possibly ask for.

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