Part 8 in a series

Continuing with the series about parental issues vs. children’s issues… there is so much that floods my brain when I contemplate this. Underscoring this entire subject is the fact that no one understands this life unless they are living it! No one!


My good friend Julie and I have had many, many discussions about this. Julie was telling me about the sermon she heard in church last weekend. The pastor said there were two main reasons why Jesus struggled so much with temptation during his forty days fasting and praying in the wilderness. One was because he was hungry… (pardon me while I go get a Heath bar…) but the other one was because he was alone.


Julie said it struck her how that defines what ADN is all about. We understand that things get much harder when they must be done alone. ADN started when three moms got together to “commiserate” and yes, complain! How refreshing it was to hear someone else tell a story that was as bad or, dare I say it, worse than what you yourself had experienced!


In a recent post, Julie described her experiences at a scrapbooking get-together. I know all of us can relate to this scene:

Others chatted on about their children not making an A, not wanting to play soccer this year, not making first chair in band. Oh, such disappointments! Such heartaches! I particularly like the sentences that start out "Well I just told her to ___________." Especially when the child actually DOES what the parent told them to do. Or the ones that start out "I would never allow my child to____________." And the fill-in-the-blank isn't "kill the cat", "slash their own wrist" or “defecate in the corner." It's usually "make a C", "miss soccer practice" or "talk to me like that". Wish I could figure out which of my issues enable my child to "talk to me like that"--because I've yet to be able to stop what comes out of her mouth...yes, I definitely need to work on that baggage!

Anyway--enough complaining. I do love my Ms. Parenting Average Kids friends. But they don't get it—can't fathom it—and when they do offer me advice on how I can change myself, I roll with it. It would be like me trying to advise NASA engineers on how to redesign the space shuttle just because I've ridden in an airplane. PLEEZE!

Laughter is one of our best personal therapies... are you feeling better yet?

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