A Shout Out to Parents

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. ~ Benjamin Spock

First, let me define what I mean by the term parent, by that term I mean anyone raising a child.  So, technically you might be a mom, dad, uncle, aunt, grandparent, cousin, older sibling, etc…a foster parent or a parent who has adopted someone.  I also mean parents in any configuration, single parent, paired parents, two moms, two dads, one of each, three whatever group or person who is actively working to raise a child in my book is a parent.

Right now being a parent has changed pretty rapidly and drastically.  A lot of parents are finding themselves spending a LOT more time with their kids.  Many of you have become home school teachers and a lot of you are trying to work from home with kids running around while simultaneously working.  Honestly I’ve actually enjoyed seeing munchkins Zoom bombing meetings their parents are having with me, but it’s difficult to work, teach, meet, take care of a home and stay sane all at the same time.

I see a lot of parents right now lamenting that they may not be doing a great job parenting.  I understand the feeling, things are stressed and crazy and certainly very not normal and there will be times and days where it all feels like it’s falling apart.  Breathe, relax, you’re doing the best you can, and likely doing far better than you realize.  I’m watching friends and relatives who are parents becoming gym teachers, crafting supervisors, teaching munchkins to bake, finding ways to make sweet gestures.  You all are doing a good job.

The thing I would like to remind you of is your own childhood.  At least for me, the memories that are most impactful from my childhood are the little things and tonight while cooking dinner I had one of those memories.  I was making raviolis tonight for dinner, I had a mix of meat and cheese raviolis and it brought back a really specific memory.  I was an insanely picky eater as a kid, I didn’t eat cheese raviolis.  So my mother, after working all day, coming home and cooking had to pick through the raviolis to sort out the meat ones for my plate before putting on the sauce and serving dinner.  Such a small thing but it was important to me that she would always make that effort to make me happy.

You, as parents, are likely doing a dozen of those types of things every day.  From going out to buy ice cream, to peeling a banana, or making a special dinner.  Perhaps it’s the way you tuck them in at night or the book you’ve read for the 100th time or letting your kid wear their Santa suit for the tenth day in a row, in March.

Especially little kids, they might not see it now, you might not see it now, but trust me my friends.  Some day your kids are going to look back on this time and explain to you how special you were to them during all of this.  Hold on to that thought, don’t be so hard on yourselves and have a happy day my friends.  ~ Rev Kane