my 56th birthday and my middle son says something that makes me exam some
of my core thoughts.
first let me say I would not change my childhood and growing up for
anyone's. You could not ask for better parents than my Mom and Dad and I always
find myself comparing my parenting skills to theirs.
My dad was in the USAF and we moved around a lot, I loved our life, I saw
and done more in my early years than some do in a life time BUT it was hard not
having the same friends all the time, as soon as you made a good friend it
seemed like you would move and start all over. after a while you didn't try as
hard to make friends or when you did you learned to keep them at arms reach.
the flip side of that is you build strong bonds with your brothers and learn
quick how important family is.
Anyway the point of this post if there is one LOL
When my wife and I decided to have kids I wanted to be sure we were in a
home that we wouldn't be moving from, I wanted my sons to NOT move and change
schools, I wanted them to have something I didn't have and that was "friends I
grew up with" or "someone I know since 1st grade" I have very strong feelings
on this but a conversation I had with Nick (middle son) had me thinking about
this, not that I would want to do it differently because I still feel strong on
it. What he said to me made me look and things different, I have always been
focused on how it affected me when I moved away and left friends behind. So I
had to rethink this when Nick was telling me how as long as he remembers his
friends are always moving away and he doesn't have the best friend he knew all
his life because it seems that every time he makes a friend they move! WOW I
never thought about that. I have many times wonder what happened to the kids I
knew at different schools I always assumed they grew up and had other kids they
grew up with, it never crossed my mind that you could live in one place and
still end up like me, the person that moved all the time and not have that one
best friend you knew all your life.
So here I am rethinking about friends I knew and what happened with them,
on one hand I would like to think they made many other "best" friends when I
moved but now to be honest I would like to think I was hard to replace.
But it goes to show as a parent you can only do what you thinks best, try
to make your kids life better and guard them from harm as much as you can, BUT
no matter your best effort there will be outcomes and things you just can't
control.
