Impressionability

[adamnation]

Children have a tendency to take what they are told at face value as innocence has not yet been lost to the cynicism which will eventually creep in. I was in the Third Grade when my friend Bill came to school with the most action-packed story any of us had ever heard. Bill regaled us with a tale of how, in the middle of the night, a number of

Comments

[djnevermore]

Thank you for posting that. Bill's entire story sounds part and parcel like that of my ex, my daughter's dad...except he still thinks his dad was a hero even though he was a dealer and put everyone in jeopardy (including his children, whom he introduced to drugs at 11).

Being there for them... 'Discipline without relationship leads to rebellion.' True relationship is the key to it all. My parents failed miserably. Will I?

Anyway, you obviously got me thinking there...

[adamnation]

Parenting is one of those things where if you are worrying that you are "failing miserably", you're most likely doing a pretty good job. What is even worse is that even if you're doing an amazing job, from the teenage years through the early twenties, the kids will reinforce that seed of doubt planted in your mind that "you're the worst parent in the world", but after they start to mature a bit a dramatic reversal occurs. At least that's what has happened in my observations.