Parents

Hello, strangers.

I guess I lied in my last post. School got busy, and my birthday was this past weekend, so I was unable to come here.

Anyway, I've had a topic in mind that I've wanted to talk about for a while: parents.

I'm sure some of you just cringed by the very sight of that word. I apologize.

Growing up, my parents were quite opposite. My mom decided that she would take the best friend approach. She basically let my twin sister and I do whatever our little hearts fancied. Luckily, we were good kids, so we never did anything really scandalous or illegal. I can see how this approach could be dangerous, like I-could've-been-addicted-to-meth-at-a-very-young-age dangerous. Thankfully, that's not my story. My dad, on the other hand, was a little stricter... not as strict as some of my friends' parents, but he definitely had more rules that my mom (It's kind of easy to beat 0, right?!). However, for my sister and me, he provided the boundaries that structured individuals like us needed.

So, as you can imagine, my relationships with my parents were quite interesting. However, looking back as an adult (currently at the same age as my mom was when she gave birth to my sister and me), I've realized that they did the best they could with the tools they had. There's no book on parenting (well, actually, there are tons of books on parenting, but not just one big book that tells you exactly what to do in every single situation and insures that the result will be a happy, healthy child and a stress-free parent). For my parents, my mom tried to do opposite of what her strict parents did (so she went to the other extreme), and my dad tried to do exactly what his parents did since I guess he thought they did a good job raising him and his siblings. While, I don't necessarily agree with everything my parents did (and as a teenager, I was often mad by their decisions), I most certainly appreciate everything that they've done for me. Without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

So, when I see "kids" complaining about how horrible their parents are, I really just want to tell them to wait it out. When they grow up, they will most likely understand why their parents didn't want them going to a party without an adult there to supervise. Their parents were doing the best they could to protect them. Parenting is a hard job--you don't want your kids to hate you, but you also don't want them to end up dead or in a bad situation that you allowed to happen...

So, moral of the story: Go hug your parents and tell them how much you appreciate what they've done for you. They were doing the best they knew how. :)