Parents Just Don't Understand

One of my favorite authors, Kyra Davis, wrote a blog recently that struck me so hard==right in the gut. Read this excerpt:

"The biggest surprise for most parents is that their kid isn’t who they expected him to be....The only problem is that perspective parents don’t know who that other human being is yet... But when our kid engages in behavior we believe is unseemly it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. Yes, it’s still their life but we gave them that life. (I laughed out loud here...can't you here your mom saying that) It’s inevitable that they’ll inherit some of our physical features but we also want to make sure they inherent our values and priorities."

This was written about her relationship with her child and centered mostly around her love for Halloween and his apparent apathy (right word?). But what she says is true in so many instances. I applaud her for being able to articulate what I have felt for so long in a way that I could not ignore. Parents have certain expectations sometimes before the kids are even born and they do not know how to let their child be an individual, with likes and dislikes all their own.