Parenting is simple

I’ve got this nailed down; no sweat!

If you believe that one, have I got a deal for you on a small island in the Galapagos.

Parenting is hard, to say the least. All we can hope for in the end is that our children turn out better than we did. Happy, healthy and productive members of society. There is nothing more stressful, or more rewarding than raising kids, in my humble opinion.

Pictured above are my kids (family Star Wars night!). My “why.” The reason I do what I do every day. Being their Father has become the definition of who I have become as a man, and allows me to gain an understanding of the man my Dad is. I have to say, I feel pretty good about that.

Tomorrow, our lives change a bit. Our oldest is leaving the nest. I’m as happy, proud, nervous, and apprehensive as she is. It’s inevitable. Sooner or later, the time comes where all of your eggs are in that basket, you cross your fingers and hope you taught them well enough to meet the goals you set when they first arrived in your life. “Just be smarter than I was at your age.” Trust me, that’s not a hard metric to hit in my case.

Like any parent out there, I’m worried about how this is going to go, preparing for the worst possible scenarios. Like any young woman leaving the home, she’s confident that she has this under control. The truth is somewhere in the middle, I’m sure.

What’s the moral of the story? We, as parents, spend an enormous amount of time preparing our children for all life is going to throw at them. Along the way, don’t forget to prepare yourselves for the eventuality that they are going to use those tools you’ve given them.

To my lovely daughter, I could write a ton of flowery things and quote wisdom through the ages to express my thoughts and feelings. Instead, I think I’ll just close with this.

Don’t just make us proud; make us jealous.

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