Breaking the Cycle

I have been thinking a lot lately about how different my children's childhood has been compared to mine and Marty's. When Marty and I became parents, we didn't have a clue what we were doing (sometimes we still don't feel like we have a clue). When Alex was a baby, we just loved on him and enjoyed him (like he was my little dress up doll). As he got older, we realized that we were responsible for him and needed to actively shape the direction that he was headed. Our earliest parenting idea was to do the opposite of what our parents did. Neither one of us had the best childhood, so we figured that we would try to break the cycle. When Scott came, we stayed with the same program. I think so far we have done a pretty good job of raising our boys. I would like to say that I know what I am doing and am not overprotective, but that is not true. When you grow up like I did, you tend to be hyper vigilant with your own kids. As the boys have gotten older, I have really worked at letting go of my fears for their safety. This means I let them get Swiss army knives, go on hikes, ride their bikes off jumps, go on youth retreats (to foreign countries), play football, etc. I like the quote on fear that I found in my book club book (The Bathtub is Overflowing but I Feel Drained). Here it is: "I have to realize that I cannot control my children's safety. Not by my prayers, not by my worries, and certainly not by my fears." I need to constantly realize that my children belong to the Lord, and he just entrusted them to me.

I still can't help myself from the momism's though: be careful, that knife is sharp, don't crack your head open, no broken bones, etc. I guess they will just have to put up with it, since I love them so much.