As I sit here, having just finished watching the Netflix movie “The Guide to the Perfect Family”, I can't help but feel a wave of mixed emotions, which probably comes from both my personal and professional experiences, as a mom and as a birth/postpartum doula.
The movie highlights the struggles of parenting in a society that places high expectations (not to talk about social media “presence”) on parents and children and left me with a strange feeling of being at the same time surprised, but not really. In between thoughts of how difficult parenting can be and how we, as adults, are all, in some way, messed up by our own upbringing.
Raising children has become a journey of guilt and pressure, where parents, who may not have fully realized themselves, are now responsible for raising overwhelmed children. These children, burdened with the need to be perfect, struggle to satisfy their parents' expectations, their friends' expectations, and the world's expectations, all while trying to find themselves and their purpose in a society that, despite being labelled as free, has become a slave to physical and emotional illness.
It's a vicious cycle that we all seem to be caught up in. As parents, we need to recognize the importance of letting our children be average, allowing them to dream, try, and most importantly, fail. It's through these experiences that they learn, grow, and make memories. It's important to let them be happy and not measure our success as parents through their successes as individuals. Instead, we should ask them what success means to them and support them in their journey to achieve it.
In conclusion, parenting is not an easy ride, and the complexities of our modern world only add to the challenge.
As we strive to raise our children, it's important to remember that we all have our own struggles, and that's okay. We need to support each other and allow ourselves and our children to be imperfect, to make mistakes, and to learn from them.
Only then we can truly feel confident to embrace the journey of parenting and all the ups and downs that come with it.
