Home » How Perceptions of Parents Change As We Age

Of course, this revelation didn't become clear to me until I achieved the title of mother myself. For it is then and only then that one realizes how important the role of parents (good parents) are.

 

As a child, good parents could easily be compared to super heroes; always there when you need them, never leaving you in a crunch situation and certainly always providing you with the right answers. They are defenders and keepers of our safety. Just reminisce back, if you will, to how safe, secure and loved you felt in your mother or father's arms.

Unfortunately during the teenage years, parents generally lose their superhuman personas and are minimized to mere mortals who know absolutely nothing about life.

It is during these tumultous years that parents may often be viewed as the villain. And so, the battle begins. The relationship can become strained. During this battle the protagonist and antagonist are not clearly defined. If you ask the teenager, the parents are the villanous culprits whose sole mission is to make their lives as miserable as possible.

Quiz the parents and you will discover that their kid has gone completely insane and an exorcism may very well be the only alternative to restoring peace and harmony in the home.

Thank goodness God had a sense of humor and decided to only allot seven years for the teenage life-cycle.

During early adulthood, our perception of our parents changes once again.

For the most part, we learn to appreciate the sacrifices and selfless giving good parents exhibit during the upbringing of their children. This may not be easily expressed in words but it can be shown in nonverbal ways. Sons aren't embarrassed to hug mom anymore in public. Daughters don't walk a mile behind mom when they're shopping together in the mall.

Heck, we may even start taking some of their advice and applying it in our own lives!

But alas, the next perception change is ultimately the most paramount of them all.

As I stated earlier, once we become parents ourselves it's as if the blind have just received their sight.

I can remember staring into that plexiglass nursery crib in the hospital and realizing with the same awareness, alertness and terror a deer caught in headlights must feel that I was someone's Mother. It was at that moment the reality that my life would never be the same came to me and I was paralyzed with fear.  I had no clue on how to be a parent. It dawned on me that I  too would be flying by the seat of my pants hopefully enlisting some of those same tricks that good parents have been pulling out of their hats for years and using as cliffnotes for this novel called "Parenthood".