Parenting 101

Parenting, it's not a job it is an adventure…especially when you have a senior in high school that is just done and is ready to head out into the world and do her own thing and not be accountable to anyone anymore. The trouble is I cannot get this young woman to understand that you are always accountable to someone. There are always rules, always people with expectations and always responsibility.

Life at home with parents yammering on and on about what they want from you might not be what a kid wants, but in the end you find yourself wishing for the good old days when you had no responsibilities and someone bought your groceries and made you dinner, kept you warm and safe and encouraged you. Let us also not forget that someone will do your laundry for you when you need it too. Where else can that happen besides home, for free?

I have tried to explain to my child that I want her to grow up and I want her to leave home. I also want her to be responsible for herself and respect others. Unfortunately it is my job to get her ready to go with a full understanding of respect and responsibility and I intend to do that whether she likes it or not. Perhaps the fact that she wants to leave home so badly gives me hope that she can launch from here and fly, but I would not be doing my job as a parent if I threw up my hands and gave her, her wings now.

All in good time she will be packing and leaving home. I hope that by then she will understand that what she considers hovering, I consider protecting. What she considers me being mean, is me trying to teach responsibility and self respect. I need to be honest with myself that she won't understand until she is standing in front of her own teenager going toe to toe, but I can dream can't I?

In the end I love her and I will love her right through this time we are facing together. She is strong and smart and when the time is right she will be up for the task of carrying on without me. For now, there is some tweaking to do and I fully intend to do it! I am up for the adventure, I hope she is.