Does Anyone Parent Anymore?

You always hear about parents complaining about the "terrible twos" and any other age under the age of ten. Honestly, I found those to be great years! You are literally watching the little person you helped create unfold before your very eyes. What is more wondrous than that?

Anything that falls under the toddler years, to me, are time consuming but not "parent" consuming. Meaning - (well hopefully the time consuming part is self-explanatory) as a parent not all of your brain cells are required to parent a two-year old! Seriously, the litany of "don't touch that honey, you'll burn yourself" and "hey, come back here" really aren't a big deal. Yes, you get tired of being a parrot, I mean parent, in those times. At best you feel like making a recording and just hitting play occasionally but really can mail in the performance.

I've found that parenting teenagers requires one to pull out all the stops, especially in brain cell output requirement. Not only are you parent, but you need to be soothsayer, spy, all sorts of instructors, zoo keeper, cool friend, and well, the list goes on too long to keep going.

I've heard people say that when their kids hit the teen years they are cleared for take off. I can't tell you how untrue that statement is on so many levels. The second they hit teen number of any kind is when the switch gets flipped into "I'm invincible" and the "I know everything" modes. The attitudes become flippant and grating and all of a sudden the parent is on full scramble mode. This is the time when they are truly facing something that could impact the rest of their lives and quite possibly destroy it in one unfortunate, misinformed, unguided decision. Teen drinking, driving, pregnancy, drug use, stds, holy cow, I just don't want to add any more to this list but rest assured it's not remotely done.

I am not in any way suggesting that you lock your kid up, even though the idea has merit. What I am saying is, now is when we have to be parents. Too many times, I see parents don't know what the kids have on their Facebook pages or cell phones or computers or...again list could go on. Yet, when they finally happen across objectionable content, they blame the dispenser of the information versus parenting their children!!! The whole Apple stuff going on with them removing "sexy" content simply because parents failed. A child gets bitten after instigating the dog, but it's the dogs fault, not the parents. Really? Yes, really. This is the kind of bullshit that goes on in our society today. OH! But I forget, it's not chic to take responsibility for oneself and pfft! Teach that to our children. Neva!!

I take my one true, full time, never ending job so seriously there are days when my heart aches in terror for my children and for myself. Am I strong enough, smart enough, do I love my kids enough to do pull this off? How the hell am I supposed to help them navigate so many terrors in the world today? (No, not the war kind just the average backyard teen kind) Have I given them enough tools to stand on their own as responsible adults heading out on their own?

I don't have the answers to those questions, I really don't, but what I do have is the wear-with-all to try, and the understanding to know that I have to keep trying...even when its me, the parent, that fails.