Parental Fears vs.Reality

Even though Jordan was blatantly being avoided by most of her “friend” group, there were two sweet girls who had the guts to go against the majority. They invited Jordan to a trampoline park, and she came home in such a good mood. I can’t tell you how nice it was to see her smile.

I’m not sure how or why her mood began to change, but it did. By 11:00 that night she was miserable. How does someone go from euphoric jumping and laughing, to being incapable of putting on her pajamas?

Needless to say, I was getting more and more angry by the minute. I thought the whole situation was crap and she was completely playing and manipulating me, to get a reaction. Cringe. It was as if all those non-productive, parental fears (you know... the ones no one likes to admit to, but during certain times of weakness, we sometimes let sneak into our thought patterns) were relentlessly slamming me down:

• Our child will have no friends.
• Our child will not be able to take care of herself.
• Our child will be unhappy.
• We will lose control of our child.
• We are going to screw up our child.

More often than not, Adam was the voice of reason. This was probably true because when one parent is losing it, the other tends to instinctively keep it together. He explained to me that we needed to be calm and speak with a matter-of-fact tone, because if we reacted with anger or emotion, it would only make things worse. I can certainly attest to that, but I was pissed!

This tends to sound so emotional and dire, and I guess at times our lives may have felt that way, but these posts are only short snippets of our story. Life has, and probably will continue to be, filled with ups and downs. And it's okay.

Adam, continuing to be the voice of reason that he is, assures me that the struggles we face today, can ultimately provide us with the tools necessary to achieve success later in life. I sure hope he's right.

Thank you.

Us Too