Parenting

Life is such a balancing act.

Somewhere between allowing the child to seek his own level and believing that as the twig is bent, so will the boy grow, is a fine balance we commonly call parenting.

It is scary to think that the only requirement for being a parent is a lusty connection that may, or may not have any thought behind it and for this act you are rewarded not with a gold cup, or a puppy, but a human baby!

That baby, as it was for you and I when we were babies, relies on his "parent" to teach him how to live in this world and our responses, whether they are carefully thought out, or mere whimsical reactions, can decide whether or not he will live, eat, play and love successfully, or struggle for the rest of his days.

Children don't need cool parents, or funny parents, or "in" parents. They don't need parents to be friends and pals and playmates, although there is a time and a place for all these things in a balanced life. Children need parents who teach them the real rules about a real world that will cut them off at the knees without any compassion at all if they screw up as adults.

This is probably the hardest job any of us will ever attempt and nobody seems to want to really talk about it. It isn't a popular subject. Children are not little science projects, or adventures in babysitting. They are real live, tiny human beings who will someday grow up to be parents themselves and what we give them will decide the ways many of them will suffer through depression, or face impossible work standards, or deal with huge health issues.

I wouldn't build a house without a good foundation, so why would I want to send my child out into the world without something equally substantial?