Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
As an adult, and especially as a parent, I have many positive realizations and epiphanies about how my parents raised me, even if I felt like some of their actions or rules were unreasonable at the moment. I find myself often defaulting to my parents’ responses to any number of things or to how my father would impart life lessons to me when trying to teach my kids something. Turns out, my parents were pretty wise.
I also realize that, as a parent now, my parents probably had absolutely no freakin’ clue what they were doing on any number of occasions, flying by the seat of their pants and winging it, hoping for the best possible outcome. And that sentence has absolutely no judgment in it whatsoever; I can’t think of too many endeavors that require more grace than parenting. I hope I’m not projecting here, but I feel like so much of being a parent is really just hoping things work out. Whether trying to get out of the door in the morning on time to getting kids to sleep at night, any single day can provide so many “Say what?” moments that you have to solve on the fly that it’s no wonder so many parents end their days with glasses of wine, doom scrolling on social media and drowning in “Law & Order: SVU” reruns.
For instance, I have four children who currently attend three different schools, and in all the different versions of school available in the area. My daughter currently attends a private school in northern Virginia, two of my boys attend a language-immersion charter school in Washington, D.C., and my youngest son attends our neighborhood public school because they offer the services we need and have a pre-kindergarten (PK) program. One of the good things about being in Washington, D.C., is that many schools offer free PK programs starting at 3 years old. Anyway, so my four kids are in three…
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