Parenting- Messy and not always pretty!
I had a flashback moment the other morning as I dropped my son off at the University and watched him walk off into the distance. It seemed like only yesterday when I remembered feeling the excitement of being pregnant with him for the first time and attending a “Preparing for Parenting” class thinking naively that it would equip me for the next 18 years and beyond!!
I chuckled to myself as I thought about how absurd that now seemed; not only because of the complexity of the task of parenting, the uniqueness of each child, but also the ever changing dynamics as they transition through the different stages of life. How was it that I could possibly believe that this class would somehow miraculously prepare me for what was to come?!! Yet I believed wholeheartedly that it would and with that belief were many hopes, dreams, and ideals of what parenting would be like.
One such dream, as crazy as it was, was being able to style my children’s hair! Having three boys, my hopes of hair styling their hair quickly vanished! That was until, the other morning…. as my son prepared for his day at the University where he was participating in Model of United Nations and he asked me to style his hair! I couldn’t believe his request, being a teenager and all.
I was so pleased and immediately envisioned the clean page boy, slicked down, put together look. As he sat on the edge of the bathtub waiting for me to style his hair I soon realized that our vision for hair styles were worlds apart; literally! He was to represent Great Britain and the look he was after was that of Great Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. I wondered why he needed me for that?!?? After all as far as I saw it all he needed to do was hang upside down and shake his head vigorously!!
Feeling a bit disappointed I began working on that trademark look-disheveled and tussled.
Within seconds I had nailed it! What struck me was the metaphor his look had to my life. You see there is no such thing as “planned” in parenting. In fact what you envision is rarely reality. Instead it is a day to day feeling of being upside down and shaken up.
Sometimes glorious but often messy- just like Great Britain’s Prime Minister, Mr. Johnson!!!
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