By coincidence, I’ve recently been going over that exact theme of conversation. All of the positives about being a parent are the source of great memories for me. The most difficult and most negative challenges of parenting, some of which were expected while the majority were not, presented themselves often, especially during my children’s teenage years. All of this made me reflect on the assumptions that I had had about parenting prior to ever becoming a parent. I’m talking about when I was a child, when I was a teenager. I used to think, “If and when I have my own children one day, I’m going to do this, or I’m not going to do this.” Now, after actually being a parent, I realize that my own children are in that realm of thinking or have thought, “If and when I have my own children one day, I’m going to do this, or I’m not going to do this.”
Those starry-eyed assumptions that I had paved a road of easy parenting, two-way unconditional love, smooth sailing, mutual understanding, happy children, great times, etc. Actually going through it, though, reality was nothing like that dream-world I had imagined. I’ve learned that the same applies to marriage, a career, being an adult, many other aspects of life. It takes going through the bigger and most important parts of life to separate reality from fiction.
Taking into account the good and the bad, parenting overall was harder than I thought it would be.
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