Dear Mom,

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I am 31 years old and finally have a new perspective… a new understanding, maybe? I often wonder just how long it will take me to really figure this whole parenting thing out.

I think when we are young, especially before we have children of our own, we are quick to judge. We judge tantrums at the grocery story, quick to say what our solution would be if that were our child. We can identify the exact moment a child deserves a spanking- or at least so we think. We judge our parents for the choices they made or the choices they did not make while raising us. It seems so easy….

As each year passes and I acquire another year of experience, I realize just how green I still am when it comes to parenting. With each child that is added to this family, I am reminded my life is less my own and constantly find myself stepping away for a moment and suddenly I see my mother. I have no idea how she raised 5 children and lived through it with the sanity to share it. I can no longer judge my parents for how they raised me- I now realize some day my children will judge me and I hope like hell I have done them justice. I hope that when they are 30 they finally understand that ‘because I said so’ is an answer and not one you should roll your eyes to. I hope they understand that each and every day I am doing my best to give them all that I possibly can. I pray they finally understand that cleaning their rooms and helping around the house is not unfair- the fair comes once a year here in Dallas. Soon I hope they will understand they are entitled to nothing- everything must be earned…..and they will be paid for their chores with food and love and endless running around town to get them to the next activity- free of charge to them.

With that said, this job, the one called parenting, is one of the hardest jobs I have eve had. As natural as it may be for a mother to love and guide her children, you always wonder- Am I doing everything right? There are no sick days, this we know, and there are no raises and time and a half does not apply. We will not know if we are ‘meeting expectations’ until we get our review from our children once they are adults and looking back on their childhoods and thus the cycle continues.

Happy Mothers Day, Mom! You raised five children who love you very much. And you always told me my children would be 10 times worse than I was…… please forgive me. And oh, by the way, can you please lift that curse!

3 Comments

  1. Exactly. I knew all about how to be a parent. Then I had kids and realized how little I knew!

  2. About 5 years ago I actually apologized to my mom for being a turkey and driving her crazy. A coworker of hers ad just had a baby and asked my mom when it was all worth it…my mom said "When your 30-something year old daughter has her won kids and then apologizes to you."

  3. Crystal and Co says:

    Holly, that is funny!

    My husband calls his father on a regular basis when things get crazy with children around our house and begs his father to forgive him for causing so many headaches as a child. He also asks his dad to lift the curse… just in case that is why we are now dealing with so wild and crazy child raising ordeals.

    It really is funny.

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