"Parents have no idea what it's like growing up in this generation."
It's very weird for me to read this as I am somewhere in the middle of her generation and our parents. I totally get where she is coming from. I never felt like I was understood as a teenager, at least not by my mom, who was in charge of me - setting all those limits and inevitably teaching me to be a responsible adult. But man did I resent her for it at the time! (Sorry, Mom!)
I feel like I have been given some magic perspective goggles...if only they would work for my sisters. Now that I AM a reasonably responsible adult, I understand that while parents can be clueless about so much that seems important at the time, ultimately, the universal lessons remain the same generation after generation.
Be a good person. Be respectful to others, especially your elders. Take care of your family. Respect yourself by making choices you will be proud of (or can live with). Do well in school. See the bigger picture. Make an effort to make other people feel good. Do your chores whether you want to or not. Make your bed every morning. (Well...that last one probably isn't an important universal lesson...but I've already instilled in my 6 year old who has had to do it every day since he was 4...poor little guy.)
Reading this quote scares me a little, too. It makes me wonder what Liam and Finn will be like as teenagers. What will our relationships be like? Will I be totally clueless? Will we fight over making the beds? (inevitably!) Will I have earned their respect? Will they walk all over me? (Sort of like they do now...only with bigger, stinkier feet....)
Instead of fear, I will just have to remember to keep those perspective goggles handy. Mama knows best...
(I know what some of your are thinking - I have boys, it'll be different than the 'mother/daughter' thing I had going on. My friends, you are wrong. Liam and I have established a lovely mother/daughter relationship. We are as dramatic as they come - already!)
Anyway, here's to the future...
There is a commercial out there that I have not seen in a while but it was a father standing at the passenger side window talking to his little girl about driving safely and wearing her seat belt. Her feat didn't even reach the end of the seat cushion. Then the camera cuts away to the dads face and then back to the little girl who is actually grown up now saying "ok dad can I have the keys now?" with a smile on her face. This commercial gets me all choked up lol. Being the father of a little girl is such an amazing experience and that commercial cuts right to the heart of how I know I'm going to feel one day.
ReplyDeleteThe point I'm trying to make in all of this is that we have no idea when we are younger what our parents went through with us and for us. At the time, we surly had no understanding of the worries and smiles and emotions they had for us. Not until we had kids of our own. The girl in the commercial figured her father was being silly. How could she fathom the idea that she is and always will be his little girl and how fast time flies until she goes through it herself?
The older I get, the more I realize that my parents not only understood, but mastered the concept of what it was to be a young person trying to figure it all out. And here I thought I knew everything. Boy was I wrong!
Love ya britt... I read your blog often xoxoxo