Homework #58,Thoughts On Parenting, Again.

There are a lot of angles to take on how to be a parent. Some read the book and try to go by that, and some try and "go with the gut", and do it how they think that they should. Each parent may try a different way, and there isn't one ultimate way that is right. There are parents that treat their kids badly, and the kids may be some of the best people you could ever imagine. The parent may think that the kid is doing something wrong, when in reality, they are the ones too stubborn to think of anyone other than themselves.

For the seniors, college is coming up, which signifies their independence. There may be some of us who have already left the nest, and are living on their own, yet for most this is the first step outside of what we have always known. There are kids that are counting down the days to go until college, excited to be leaving. And there are also the kids who are scared to leave their parents, go to college, and then into the real world. Some parents are doing everything they can to stay in control of their kids until they go to college, where they can do whatever they want.

I feel like I have several different parents. A lot of my mom's friends act like moms to me, and I even have one that I call my "other mother". When my mom isn't there, her friend checks in on me sometimes to make sure that I'm okay. I don't have the movie family of my parents being together forever, since they're divorced. Yet when they got divorced they promised that they'd still be friends for the kids. They also decided to live within a walkable distance from each other to make it easier for my brother and I. The relationship my mom and dad have now is really different from a lot of people whose parents are divorced. There are kids who have to play messenger for their parents, where the mom calls the kid, then the kid has to call the dad.. etc.

The two people that came in for our interviews told us very different stories on how they are parenting, and how they came to be parents. The security guard was telling us how she has her mom and her grandma watching her kid when she's at work, or away. She said how it's helpful that she is able to call them any time she doesn't know what is happening to her kid, no matter what time, since they have kids and experiences of their own. Yet in the end, she doesn't go by the book (which she said sucks) or her family, she goes by what she thinks is best.

Rob told us how it was for him and his lover going about adopting a baby girl. The mother chose him and his guy out of all the people that wanted to adopt the girl, which was very special to him. His daughter is going to grow up with two guys as parents, which doesn't happen for most of us. He was telling us how his family is really strict and traditional, and that they weren't talking to him for a while after he told them he was adopting a kid. His boyfriend's parents are very liberal, and support them. This often happens, one set of parents being happy and supportive of the couple, and one family that isn't. Like in Rent the musical, the white family was snotty and didn't understand their daughter, while the other family was really sweet and welcomed their daughter's partner into their family.

Parenting, as a topic, doesn't really require many insights. We all have parents, if they act like them or not. For me, I got to appreciate how my mom is, and how she is there for me at all times. I got to think about the kids who don't have as strong of a relationship with their parents as I do, and I got to think about my brother and I. But as a mini-unit, it wasn't that interesting. Yes, there are many kinds of parents, and we all have parents. Some wish that their parents acted one way, or another way. And the really scary thought is that some of us are going to go on to be parents of their own.