Today, in Sacrement Meeting, one of the speakers described mother's as superhero. To me, superheros are always there to save the day. Superheros seem to be able to do it all. Superheros are always fighting for the greater good. Superheros are kind, compassionate, and always looking out for the interests of others. Superheros give of themselves selflessly. The more things I list about superheros, the more I realize that I'm not even a superhero-in-training. I don't even get a "junior cape". And if mothers are supposed to be superheros, than it is amazing to me that I haven't completely screwed up my children.
The more I think about that--the fact that I have relatively well-adjusted, nice children--I truly wonder how that happened. What were the parenting skills (and where did we learn them?) that Dave and I employed to help Katelyn and Carson become the chilren that they are? Maybe it actually had little to do with what we did as parents, but was more about who Katelyn and Carson are as people--the personalities they came with.
4 comments:
You cut yourself, and your role as a leader teacher and guide (hence a parent), too short. Those personalities are not discovered much less defined for years into childhood; and it is the learning of responsiblity, love, and drive for accomplishment that is taught along the way, hopefully by the Mothers and Fathers, that will allow that child to take their own individual personality and apply the laws of progression to themselves in order to succeed in this life and that to come. I say thank you to Mom for helping me with that, even as long as it is taking, I congratulate you on showing your children how they to may succeed in life. But most of all I thank our Father in Heaven for the plan of Families, which are needed for us to succeed.
Michael Whiting
You and another person I know had much the same response to this post. What I was really trying to say was that it is tough to be a mom. We aren't superheros who get it right all the time.
When I step back and look at parenting I find it a strange calling, in that alot of it is trial and error--what works with one child doesn't work with another. I use experiences from my own childhood to guide how I now parent, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
I don't spend a lot of time reading parentiing books or attending parenting classes. I just try hard to teach Katelyn and Carson how to be good people and love the Lord. But I still think that their own personalities makes a significance difference in how they respond to Dave and my efforts.
And I should have been more clear that when I said "where did the parenting skills come from", I wasn't trying to discount the examples that our parents set, I was speaking more about the fact that there is no instructional manual that comes with the first child.
That I will agree with, since most of the parenting novels that I have seen nowadays are a crock. But I still say it is somewhat of a superhero accomplishment what parents do in nurturing their children, but recognizing the only superhero part of it is really from teachings and influence of Divinity which is far superior.
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