Parenting 101

Its tough being a parent.

You see your kid doing things you did when you were young and stupid. Now you clearly remember how much fun it was when you would be out all nights over the weekends drinking with your friends. It isn't hard to understand why your kid does it. It's part of growing up, right of passage these days. But what they won't understand and what you know very very well, is that sometimes the fun and games can get you into a lot of trouble. Not the laugh-about-it-later kinda trouble, I mean serious damage. Your kid won't understand till he/she goes through it himself/herself.

Now this, is the first and probably the hardest parenting lesson - giving them advice and freedom, and then having to sit patiently and let them do it their way, to resist the urge to stop them when they're going the wrong way, to just be there while they pick themselves up without trying to fix everything yourself.

When they flabbergast you with their immaturity sometimes and you have to swallow the urge to yell, scream and punch them back to their senses, maaaan that's tough! You have to try hard, really really hard, to move past that and ask them to explain (nicely) 'what, why, when and how' instead of rattling them and going 'What the f**k (excuse my language here) were you thinking?!' 

When their morality seems to wander, and they are blinded by something, all you can do is pray they'll get back on the right track before its too late. There's no forcing it, force just makes it worse. 'cause like my uncle once told me, 'Parents need to understand that their kids are gonna do what they wanna do either way, so they might as well be worried and angry than be in the dark about things.' Dark is always worse.

It's easy to say 'I told you so' when they learn you were right and that they should've listened to you from the beginning but its important not to. You're supposed to go all 'It's okay, shit happens, people make mistakes but the good part is you always have someone who's there for you and that person is me.' 

In short, the toughest part of parenthood is holding on to them via faith while letting go in the name of freedom and having a younger sibling prepares you for parenthood way better than anything else ever can.

Ma, I love you :*