I had a friend years ago whose relationship with her mother was strained. They talked regularly. And though they honestly loved each other, it was not uncommon for their conversations to end in utter frustration. You see, they loved each other, but they didn’t really like each other.
One expected too much, the other couldn’t let go of the past.
I have lost touch with that friend and don’t know where her relationship with her mother stands today, but I do know that I don’t want that kind of relationship with my kids.
Right now I am my boys’ mom first and their friend second.
We can enjoy some benefits of friendship, but my primary role is to guide them into adulthood. Sometimes that will tick them off because my decisions are not what they would choose. And sometimes it will tick them off because the decisions I make are wrong. I’m not infallible, and of the millions of decisions I will make throughout their childhood years, I will surely make some stupid ones.
I wish I could be a perfect parent. I wish I could do all the right things and that my perfection would lead to my boys making all the right decisions. But that’s not how life works. I am a broken person and my boys are broken people. I will make mistakes and so will they.
I can dwell on my mistakes and their mistakes and layer guilt upon guilt onto myself because “I could have taught them better,” or I can forgive myself for parenting choices I regret, and I can love my kids through their best days and their worst mistakes. I choose love.
My hope for my boys is that they will see my mistakes with forgiving eyes, and that when they test their childhood in my home on a scale they will see it was heavily weighed down by love. And that that love will lead to a mama/son friendship.
Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Proverbs 23:22
