Preparing Kids For The Future
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I’m the softy.
When it comes to parenting our children, I tend to be lenient. Thankfully, Leanne helps to balance our parenting. This isn’t meant to say she’s mean or overbearing. It’s just an observation on how we’ve had to navigate our parenting journey together. Ultimately, we want what is best for our children.
We don’t want them to experience pain, but there are times when pain can actually help our children for the future.
This was a milestone weekend for us. On Friday, Hannah, our oldest, turned 18. (How did that happen so fast?)
She had big plans to celebrate her birthday by heading to the Poconos on a retreat with our church’s high school youth group. Hannah typically works Friday and Saturday nights, but she can take off if she provides enough notice to her scheduling manager. Unfortunately, she didn’t give notice, and she couldn’t find anyone to substitute for her on either of these nights.
Hannah talked to us about working on Friday night, and missing work on Saturday night so she could go on the retreat Saturday and Sunday. Leanne and I really wanted her to go, but we knew it wasn’t responsible or fair to her co-workers to simply not show up for work.
Through a tough conversation and some tears, Hannah came to the same conclusion. It was hard for her to miss out on the retreat especially on her birthday weekend, but she ended up learning some valuable lessons as a result of the experience.
As we parent, it is not our job to be best friends with our kids. And it’s not even our job to make life easy for our kids. We must be diligent in preparing them for the future. Some times that means difficult decisions, and it always means grace.