It shouldn’t shock me that this parenting stuff is difficult, but it does. And just when I think I’ve made it over an insurmountable hurdle with one of my kids’ issues and I’m patting myself on the back for being such an awesome mom, up pops another hurdle, tripping me and sending me flying back to Parenting 101.
Not that there is such a class. But, boy howdy, do I wish one existed.
It occurred to me today that, generally speaking, a person can’t be hired for a professional job unless they have a college degree. Many of us spend four years—FOUR YEARS—or longer immersing ourselves in our field of choice, studying for long, arduous hours in the hopes that we’ll one day be granted an opportunity to prove what we’ve learned.
But ANYONE can become a parent. There are no required classes, no prerequisites, no bachelors degrees in parenting. And I’m realizing that maybe it explains why the world is such a strange and screwed up place. People—clueless ones, like me, who are simply making it up as they go—are out there making parenting decisions, providing their children with examples of how to behave. These babies, kids and teenagers are watching us. They’ve imitating us. And whatever examples we provide, (both good and bad) they’re emulating and embracing.
There probably should be a college for parenting that offers a two- or four-year degree you have to earn to prove you can raise a healthy, happy, well-adjusted baby into a considerate, confident adult. Parenting School would test and then weed out all of the people who couldn’t hack being parents. Maybe then the world would be a better place. Or, maybe, Parenting School is a silly idea because it would just confirm what we already know: we’re all human and, as such, none of us are really qualified to be parents.
[photo credit: SXC]
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