I love them so much, yet they frustrate me like nothing else on this earth.
When the frustration boils over I feel like I am failing, but there, in the background, the love is always lurking.
I know that above all else, a parent’s job is to love their child, to love them in spite of the frustration.
I know that love is the place to start when you don’t know what else to do, and the place to finish when you have tried everything else.
I know that you need to let them be who they are… and love them anyway.
Let them be grumpy at the world and not be able to tell you why…. love them anyway.
Let them never be able to find the other shoe and forget where they put their library book… love then anyway.
Let them be shy and quiet and cling to your leg… love them anyway.
Let them be angry and lash out… love them anyway.
Let them cry… love them anyway.
Let them be difficult and moody… love them anyway.
Let them ask why a million times and demand you change the laws of physics… love them anyway.
Let them be silly and not know when enough is enough… love them anyway.
Let them be messy and gross… love them anyway.
Let them wake you in the night and exhaust you… love them anyway.
Let them suddenly despise the meal they used to adore, and refuse to eat dinner… love them anyway.
Let them roll their eyes and stamp their feet and slam doors… love them anyway.
Let them make mistakes… love them anyway.
Parenting can be hard, confusing, exhausting, and soul crumpling, but if we can just love our kids, in spite of anything and everything else, if we can just love them, that is enough.
This is beautiful! Sometimes I can’t understand why she who I love so much is also the one who can make me the angriest, the most frustrated. But in the end, we just love them anyway!
Beautiful, beautiful post that brought tears to my eyes. So often we forget to look from their point of view. Parenting isn’t easy, but neither is growing up. Thank you for a wonderful reminder of what is truly important for our children – our love.
Love this! A parents manifesto! Our struggle to love them unconditionally…..
Oh Kate, this is so beautiful! And sometimes so hard to do, yet … so easy somehow too, because we will love them no matter what they do. It’s a funny thing …
Love this! Such a wonderful reminder! Thanks for sharing!
How very true – one thing that came to mind for me reading this is that it is usually me losing the library books and misplacing the shoes, not to mention being moody and difficult, sigh. Luckily my girls love me anyway :-)