5 things that we wish to tell our kids, but don’t

As parents we constantly feel that time is just flying away… Our little bundle(s) of joy  will soon become adults, leaving us with so many things that we wanted to do with them and so much left to tell… Here are 5 things that we wish to tell our children, but don’t:

 1.      We love you more than we ever imagined

 Some parents fall in love with their child the day he or she is born, some develop a bond slowly as months and years go by. Our kids know that we love them - we show it in different ways, and most of the times we don’t show it enough. But what we don’t tell our kids is that our love for them is probably the most overpowering form of love that we have ever experienced, and that we could not have imagined it while they were not in our lives. It gives us strength to do things we didn’t think we were capable of. It also makes us feel more vulnerable than we were ever prepared for. Yes, we get frustrated and exhausted, we sometimes yell at you and keep reminding you how much you trouble us, yet not a day passes by when we don’t thank God for sending you in our lives…

 2.       We are always worried about your safety

Whether you are in school, or out playing in the park, or at a friend’s home, or travelling, no matter how old you are, we are always worried about your safety. Sometimes when we can’t reach you, we get the worst nightmares about what might have happened to you. Since becoming parents, every bad news involving children seems more real, and disturbs us more. Our fears are sometimes irrational, but we just can’t help it! This makes us nag you all the time – “Don’t jump from the couch – you will fall and break all your teeth!”, “Don’t hit your head against that teddy bear, you will hurt yourself” – Ok, now I am exaggerating ;-)

 3.         We don’t know what to do with our time when you are not around

 This is especially true for parents of young kids. We just keep wishing for free time that we can spend on ourselves. We day-dream about the time when there is peace and quiet, when we are not constantly on our toes meeting your needs and demands. However, when you are not around, we suddenly don’t know what to do with all that time. It’s a strange feeling when time just seems to stretch out. And then, we can’t help but wait for you to be back!

 We even worry about becoming empty nesters one day, even if you are just a baby right now!

 4.       We are insecure when it comes to parenting

We might be the most assertive and confident professionals at workplace, but we are never completely sure when it comes to being a parent. We are constantly questioning and over-analyzing our choices and decisions that we have made for you, worrying if we indeed did the best thing for you.

We are insecure when you no longer need us to take care of you and your needs, even though we want you to grow up and become independent. We enjoy doing things for you day in and day out even if it tires us out completely, and when you no longer need our constant attention, we miss the time when you needed us like that.

5.       You make us better people

You demand nothing short of the best we have, and then even better than that. Because of you, we learn how to stretch ourselves physically and emotionally, and then we find out that there is much more within us waiting to be discovered, beyond what we thought were our limits.

This self-improvement process is sometimes conscious and a lot of times unconscious. But as we go through the parenting journey, we know that we somehow becoming better… As they say - parenting tests us in unimaginable ways and what better way to build character than endure hardships ;-)

This is what I would like to tell my children. What would you like to add to this list?

Article originally published at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/nehaverma/5-things-that-we-wish-to-tell-our-kids-but-dona-1ppxg