Mistakes

A child enters your home and for the next twenty years makes so much noise you can hardly stand it.  The child departs, leaving the house so silent you think you are going mad.  ~John Andrew Holmes

Parents don’t make mistakes because they don’t care, but because they care so deeply.  ~T. Berry Brazelton

There is no such thing as a perfect parent so just be a real one.  – Sue Atkins

As a parent, it is inevitable you will make mistakes.  Parents are not perfect but you have to learn to apologize too.  I have made my share of parenting mistakes but as I look back, it was not to be the ruler of the roost but to try to instill something (a quality trait) in my children.  I do not want my children to have to suffer the same mistakes that I did because they were painful and difficult.  As a parent, I have not done things to harm my children that is the LAST thing in the world I want to do but I have made tough choices to try to improve their chances in life. 

Now that my children are getting older, I see how much I learned (and still learn) from them.  I treasure the little things, the times when we used to sit on the couch and read-aloud or riding in the car (all) belting a tune.  These are the moments that make the biggest impression, not the lectures or scolding.  Parenting is tough, mistakes happen often but making things, right is the most important lesson that they will learn.  Apologizing is not easy but it makes us a better person.  Over the years, I have had to learn many things but I am a better person (and parent) because of these lessons.  I will never say that I am perfect but I am still in the game, parenting does not end when your child is on their own it just evolves into something different…a guide rather than a teacher.