What is your viewpoint on parenthood?

Question

I feel like when you have a baby it's all magial and amazing and adorable, and they grow to be toddlers and they're still cute and learning and loving, and as young children they're still completely attatched to you and everything.. but when they start getting farther into school they start dealing with issues of other kids and then you never know who they're going to end up hanging out with and what kinds of things they're going to do.

I feel like as children progress more toward high school and teenagers it's all downhill. They become embarassed by you at times, they're not as openly loving, they can get involved with bad people, or even if they're involved with all good people they are going to experiment and try things that aren't right... it's like, I feel like the kid never understands just how much their mother and father love them and care for them. They just age and progress to become more selfish as they age (you know the whole teenage rebelliousness, parents are the root of all evil).

It's like, when the kid is young, it's great and happy and they love you and aren't embarassed and they're completely innocent, but then they grow up. And it becomes like you lived in the stone age, you don't understand current things, etc. Even though you lived so many years caring for them and your whole life was about them, their whole life becomes about themselves as well. I feel like as kids get older they just don't understand everything you went through and how the past 17 or so odd years you did almost everything for them- instead they see their life and what they want to do.

Sorry for being so long, but I just want to get my point out- I feel like having a baby is very wonderful and everything, but it just seems like the love you give your child is matched by what they give you, until they get older (like past 10 years old or something) and then their life is just all about them, and it's just like... I don't know. Now their life is ahead of them and they only see themselves, they don't appreciate you as much.

Anyway tell me your thoughts on parenthood and what you think of my viewpoint.

Answer 1

i believe in the tight knit family.. talk to your kids get involved with them, their friends... keep involved..stay involved..

Answer 2

pray for them ... i trust their maker to help them through the tough teenage days ...

Answer 3

People love to complain, that's all.

Answer 4

I never thought I would enjoy parenthood as much as I do (but then I only have an 8 month old). Although I don't look forward to that time when they would rather not have anything to do with their parents/me, I know that if I give my children the right foundations they will come around. Growing up I've learned the importance of family and that the lessons my mom taught me really have stuck, even though I didn't do exactly as she would have liked. I've seen in my friends the most rebellious daughter become good friends with her mom, and I know that my own daughter will need to follow her own path. I am also trying to let go of the anxiety that I have over not messing up my children's lives and really just try to enjoy the moment, and my sweet, happy 8 month old before she is a moody adolescent.

Answer 5

My number one goal in life is to be a good parent. I want her to be able to tell me things, but I don't want to be her best friend. I'm not going to go shopping to buy her teeny tiny mini skirts and panties at Victoria Secret. She's going to be polite to adults and she's going to have a curfew. And I plan on meeting every single boy that takes her on a date. She will have a cell phone and she'll learn to answer it when I call or she won't go out. I just think that these things are for her general safety. I guess, in my personal opinion, children are supposed to be a bit embarassed of their parents. We protect them and care for them and make sure they don't leave the house looking like playboy bunnies!

Answer 6

I think this expresses it pretty well but I can't give credit to the author as I don't know who wrote it.

  It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into a room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.  Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?"  Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

  I'm invisible.  The invisible Mom..  Some days I am only a pair of hjands;  I'm not even a human being.  I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?"  I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?"  I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

  I was certain that htese were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa *** laude-but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again.  She's going, she's going:  she's gone!

  One night a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England.  Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.  I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well.  It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself.  I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this."

  It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe.  I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read the inscription: "With admiration for the greatness of waht you are building when no one sees."

  No one can say who built the great cathedrals-we have no record of their names.  These builders gave their whole lives for work they would never see finished.  They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.  The passion of thei building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.  A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird inside of a beam.  He was puzzled & asked the man, "why are you spending so much time on something that will never be seen?" The workman replied, "Because God sees it."

  I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.  It was almost as if I heard God whispering, "I see you.  I see the sacrifices you're making every day, even when no one else does.  No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewed on, no cupcake you've baked is too small for me to notice and smile over.  You're building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

  As Moms, we're building great cathedrals.  We cannot be seen if we're doing it right.  And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we've built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of the invisible woman.

  Hope this encourages you when the going gets tough.  Motherhood is the toughest job you'll ever love.

Answer 7

I think as long as you teach your children to respect others then when they've passed through the rebelious stage, they will once again become the joy that they once were. And then of course they grow up and have children of their own and as the saying goes "If I knew grandchildren were gonna be this much fun, I'd have had them first."