On Being A Parent: The Hardest, But Most Rewarding Job In The World

Being a parent has to be the hardest job in the world. Anyone who has had children will never dispute that statement.

I think a lot about this subject of children. Children are the most precious gifts we can receive. From the time a child is born, the parents love their child more than anything else and would lay down their life for this miracle of life. A Mother begins to feel the love of her child long before it is born. I’ve often wondered if a baby realizes how much it is loved. Can it feel the love, and the concerns of the parents? Does the baby feel secure and safe?

We feed the baby, walk the floor when it has colic, bathe the baby, change the baby (Lord, how many times?) We rock and sing to the baby, and marvel at it’s beauty. We hold the baby and look down on it with pride, and wish it would just stay this sweet innocent person. We stroke the hair that feels like velvet.

The child begins to walk, and we’re right there to help them up if they fall down. We’re proud they are walking, but they don’t realize the dangers that lurk everywhere in the house. So, we must protect them by “baby proofing” the house.

We live through the “terrible two’s), and wonder if we will be strong enough to go on. They assert their independence by refusing to toilet train when you want them to. They baulk and stamp their feet. If you’re in a hurry, they refuse to be dressed.

Now, you've made it this far, and it's time to go to kindergarten. You will be separated from this dear child almost all day. You don't think you can bear it, but you do.

She started school this morning,

And she seemed so very small.

As I walked there beside her

In the Kindergarten hall.

And as she took her place beside

the others in the class,

I realized how all too soon

Those first few years can pass.

Remembering, I saw her as

She first learned how to walk.

The words that we alone made out

When she began to talk.

This little girl so much absorbed

In learning how to write.

It seems as though she must have grown

To girlhood overnight.

My eyes were blurred by hastily

I brushed the tears away

Lest by some word or sign of mine

I mar her first big day.

Oh how I longed to stay with her

And keep her by the hand

To lead her through the places

That she couldn't understand.

And something closely kin to fear

Was mingled with my pride.

I knew she would no longer be

A baby by my side.

But she must have her chance to live,

To work her problems out,

The privilege to grow and learn

What life is all about.

Before you know it, the child is a preteen. You realize now that your work has just begun. They get “smart mouthed”, and at first your feelings are hurt. How can this sweet, wonderful person talk to me this way???? You read books that advise you that this is natural….they are just asserting themselves. We just have to be patient with them.

The child reaches their teens, and the job gets even harder. They learn to drive a car, and you’ve read the statistics on that subject! They become interested in the opposite sex. Now you really don’t know what to do. You can’t give them too much freedom; yet you know the mistakes they’ll make if you don’t instill in them the value of good choices. They start hanging around with the wrong crowd, and you can see the danger. But, the more you try to tell your child they are making a poor choice in friends, the more they want that friend. The same is true of boyfriend/girlfriends. You don’t want your child to get too close for fear of all the dangers. You feel very helpless. If it’s a boy, the Father talks to him about “the birds and the bees”. You warn him, but he doesn’t listen, all of his friends have girlfriends. Your daughter is headed for heartbreak and maybe a disease, or maybe an unwanted pregnancy, but she doesn’t listen. All her friends are doing these things, and they are all fine. If you get “protection” for her, that means you approve of a premarital relationship, but if you don’t, you might be sorry. You pray a lot.

If they make it out of the teen years, you think the worst is over. I used to think that when a child reached the age of 18, my job would be over. I was wrong; very wrong. They leave home to go away to college , and now you really start to worry. What if they party too much, and don’t study? What if they flunk out of school?

Your job as a parent never stops. Even after they are grown and out of the house. You still worry about them. You worry until the day you die, or they die whichever comes first.

I will say after raising four children, I can look at them now, and pat myself on the back for a job well done! I swell with pride when I look at them now. I made it. The circle of life goes on, and now I have Grandchildren and a GreatGranddaughter to love and worry about. It never stops. Yes, being a parent IS the hardest job in the world, but it's the MOST rewarding.

I think God has a special place in Heaven for parents. We sure do deserve it!