Self-Criticism describes exactly how I feel sometimes as I decide when to push my daughter and when to pull back. I consider my role as a father one of continuous development at the same time supporting my daughter in her development from a girl into a young woman. I try to learn from each new situation that I face with her by how she reacts and grows herself vs how involved I was and whether she would have benefitted from either more or less from me. My goal is to give her the tools she needs to build her life and hopefully I can give her the freedom to use those tools how she sees fit.

We never are quite that satisfied with the job we do. It’s like self-criticism is in our blood. Time to learn to be happy with what we do and give ourselves credit for all the hard work. 🙂

You are right, Lida. It isn’t easy at all to find that balance point in parenting I am an experienced mum, but sometimes still struggling between where do I stop doing things for my kids and where do I just begin being there for them.

Hi Erica , thank you for sharing! You are right, despite the challenges of the life in the trenches they do give us lots of reasons to love this life. And as hard as letting go is, I’m just glad that at least it’s a gradual process which allows us plenty of opportunities to learn from each other.

I agree it is hard to let them fly on their own… and i’m learning more and more that my job isn’t to take away their pain, it’s to teach them how to feel it. Their resiliency in life depends on us showing them how to deal with the muck, learn from it, and press on with their lives.