Remember when you were a kid and dreamed about life as an adult? The dream usually involved a spouse, a house with a white picket fence, a few animals and so many wonderful kids. Now that reality is here and you are an adult, your real life scenario may not look anything like your perfect dream adult scenario from childhood. I mean come on how many of us actually have white picket fences?
I know I had my 3 kids names all picked out and ready to go, then I found Mr. Right and we didn’t have 3 kids much less even come close to using the perfect names I had so meticulously rolled off my tongue for YEARS!
And wonderful… YEAH RIGHT! Now don’t get me wrong my kids are good, but they are no angels. We all have our moments and when that happens I reflect upon the realization that my imagination was playing tricks on me in my childhood.
Parenting is too complex. There are too many moving parts and pieces. We also aren’t dealing with dream kids either; our kids are human beings that come with their own minds, thoughts and actions. No matter how hard we try and control these things for our kids, they are the ones with the ultimate control.
As a parent that reality is so tough to come to terms with. Especially as our kids continue to get older, wiser (we hope) and start to really understand the world around them. They may not continue to believe your beliefs or act as you want them to. And those individuals, your kids, are the reason your parenting dreams of childhood can’t be parenting realities.