Cool becomes scarey when your daughter rides off on the back of her boyfriend's new motorcycle...and not you, 30 years ago. Some revelation, huh? When we're young, we do all sorts of things that we later look back on as foolish, risky, and sometimes just plain dumb.
Kids (anyone under the age of...oh, say 25) think they're invincible. Life is full of promise, high expectations, excitement, and everything is done at warp speed. There are not enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do, when you're 17, or 18, or ... Then you grow up/grow old; sometimes they're one and the same, sometimes not. You have wisdom gained from experience, education, and 20/20 hindsight. It's the hindsight, I think, that can be particularly enlightening, as long as you don't dwell too long on the "what ifs" and "should haves," "could haves," and "would haves." Most of all, it's when you become a parent that you gain some of the greatest insight. Suddenly, your own parents become so much more intelligent, and you gain a wonderful perspective of what they went through when raising their own kids.
Parenting is tough (duh, eh?). I like to think that David and I each bring certain strengths to the table because of the way we were each raised. We have a good idea of how the other thinks, and the reasons why we are the way we are. In that, we compliment each other. David is, perhaps, a bit more willing to let our kids stretch their wings. I want to keep them home forever. Well, maybe not forever...it comes from that whole "mother the world" thing that I have. I just want my kids to be safe, happy, and become relatively well-adjusted adults. As usual, I'm probably over-analyzing things. I suspect this is true because I'm getting a headache. I think I'll end this post and go take an Advil. There's a bottle in my room with my name on it. It probably also says "Take 2 every four hours, or until your daughter is safely back home after her motorcycle ride."
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