Love Hurts...

Love hurts, Love scars. Love wounds, and marks. Raising kids... I'm not sure what worries me more. Am I doing an okay job or are THEY doing okay? When I was a kid, I would have never dreamed of the shape our society is in today. Unfortunately I am trying to raise my last two teens right in the thick of it. It scares me to the point of a physical ache. How can you make a teen realize you know more about life than them, when they think they know everything? You can't. You have to love them with every ounce and pound you can throw at them and hope that it sticks. You have to be there for them and hope they get it right...wonder if they don't get a second chance? Loving your kids hurts sometimes. Seeing them make foolish choices and having to help clean up after all the excrement hits the motorized air movement device seems to be an apt description of parenting a teen. You have to keep an eye on them and sometimes a closer eye on who they are hanging with. You have to be the bad guy and sometimes take the cold shoulder from them with a grain of salt. They think they know what they are doing but rarely do. They think you are an idiot when you know for a fact THEY are the ones acting like an idiot. You learn to take the roll of their eyes as a sign that at least they are hearing what you say. You start when they are barely toddlers and try to show them the way. They grow up to be rebellious teens and drift down another path ... you just hope one day they will come back to the path you lay out for them from the time they begin to walk. You pray a lot. Sometimes you cry and sometimes they fill you with so much pride and joy that you could pop! Other times you feel like popping THEM! I do not care if it takes them until they are thirty to grow up...just let them grow up to be the amazing person I know they are capable of being. I feel like I am sitting on the sidelines of their lives waiting for them to win the game. You can not play it for them but can cheer them on and tend to any injuries they may sustain. Being a parent is one big Doctor Kit. It is filled with remedies and band aids, prescriptions you hope they take correctly and lots of advice that is rarely taken. I used to think that was why doctors call it a PRACTICE. Now I know practice makes perfect...or at the very least helps one heck of a lot! The best a parent can hope for is that their kids have a very good memory and will wake up one day and remember all the lessons and things we instilled/pounded into them all their youth. Parenting should be called a PRACTICE as well. A practice in patience and a practice in persistence, you cannot give up on your kids, you simply must see them safely to the other side...Adulthood. Til next time...NOT GIVING UP COTTON