Can You Be A Parent without Loosing Your Sh*&?

There appears to be one thing universal to most parents that I interact with. There is always a point, no matter how small or large, that we loose our sh*& as parents.

Maybe it’s a toddler who is having a fit because she wants a second piece of Halloween candy from her bag. Maybe it’s the teenager who has turned her room into an off-limits den, and you want to know what’s going on in there. Or maybe it’s the reality of a report card that you know could be better than it is.

I prefer to take the mindset that their is no controlling our kids. Sure, we can influence them through our actions, but there is no controlling them. Yes, we can persuade and cajole or even beg and bribe, but in the end our kids are who they are.

I don’t think you can be a parent and not loose it at least once in a while. So I offer you a moment to read this poem by Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese-American artist and poet who live during the turn of the century.

On Children (as posted by katzandogz.com)
by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

It’s okay to loose your sh*& once and a while, but remember, your kids will only be with you for a short time. How would you like them to remember you?