We love kids; but kids make a mess. Teens screw up. Moms freak out! It’s inevitable. But you can recover, learn from your mistakes, and move on empowered. Almost thirty years ago when my wife and I were first expecting, we headed off to the local community parenting class. While we learned a lot, the class was small and attended by parents that I thought sounded like good parents already.
Parenting comes with its own challenges for every generation. Often modern parents are wrongly criticized in their schools and in the media for the job they do. If children are unruly, blame the parents; if children are spoiled, it is their parents that enabled them. If you have not noticed, the world has changed. The only real criticism that I have with many parents is not their lack of love or commitment but their great presumption that they should magically know how to raise healthy children. Most of us tend to think, “Hey, I didn’t turn out that badly, so I will just do what my parents did.” Not a good decision! It is just not enough!