I have to be honest; it is with trepidation that I go into this new school year. Last year brought some very unpleasant surprises to our life. So I can’t help but wonder what is before us.
I try to have an optimistic attitude. But at the same time, I know that I can’t be blind to the reality that sometimes things just don’t go the way you thought or planned. So let me share some things I learned last year as a parent.
First, don’t get too confident in your parenting. While you may not say it out loud, your attitude could be that you have this parenting thing down to a science.
I am humble enough to admit that I felt this way. Not in the sense that I could tell others how to parent. But I was feeling pretty confident about my abilities as a parent with my own children.
Here I was facing the last year of high school with my oldest and I was pretty pleased with the way he was turning out…perhaps I took more credit than I should have. Because when another child decides to do things differently, suddenly you aren’t sure if it’s all about your parenting.
Second, don’t rely on your “good” choices to be a security for your child. For instance, the fact that my children have been raised in the church since they were in the womb doesn’t guarantee anything. I think that deep down inside I felt it would.
The years I chose to home school, the various decisions I have made, the ability to be a stay-at-home mom…these were all things I looked to as security. Of course everything will turn out right.
And it’s not that it won’t turn out right. My point is that your world can be rocked in an instant. Suddenly all of your parenting “skills” and the things you put in place to protect your children, well; it’s not that they lose their value. But they weren’t designed to promise a smooth path.
However I can tell you this, it is those very things that just might get your child back on the right path. This too I know from experience.
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