Parenting: The Hardest Thing You've Ever Done

This is a writing sample from Scripted writer Rachel MacAulay

What's the hardest thing you've ever done as a parent? It's not an easy question, is it? Your mind races back through so many snapshots; a fast-flipping Rolodex of moments and memories. I remember my first (but far from only) hard parenting moment as if it was yesterday, and not already 13 years behind me. We'd just brought home our firstborn, a nearly ten-pound boy who emotionally enlarged my heart and physically exhausted my spirit. The staff at the hospital had intently focused on nursing and diapering to, I'd discover, the detriment of other little, important parenting things. Such as swaddling. How hard is it to wrap a blanket around a newborn, you might ask. Well, let me tell you. I was close to freaking out when it was just the three of us at home–no nurses, no grandmoms–and I realized I had no idea how to wrap the baby and tuck those corners in so that the baby package stayed together. I laugh at it now–because, c'mon, anybody who has made a wonton, blintz or spanakopita can swaddle a baby–and know it's a skill you never lose once you learn it. But there I was, an avid puzzle and game player, nearly brought to tears by one squirming baby and the blanket that just WOULDN'T STAY WRAPPED. Yeah, I miss those days. That 13 year-old is currently at sleep-away camp. It's his second year and I'm the one who championed the experience. After all, children need space sometimes to discover who they are and who they can be. But I miss him. Daily. As we sit down around the kitchen table for dinner each night, there's an empty space at the table that both tears at my heart and makes me thankful that it's temporary. For now. Because I know we likely have more years behind us than ahead of us in which either of our children will still be sitting around that kitchen table, telling us knock-knock jokes and testing out their newly acquired semi-raunchy vocabulary on an always-responsive and always-supportive audience. I also know that our protective control over their lives is slowly eroding as they grow and move on. At some future point, we'll have to let them fly away, hoping to God that the world is kind and we've prepared them to always make the right choices. The irony is that we are the ones who help them gather the feathers and teach them to make the wings that take them away from us. And that, my friend, is the hardest thing about parenting.

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Rachel MacAulay
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In Rachel's past life she was a technology analyst, and she still trusts data and research as the basis of business writing. She has been a freelance writer and editor for 25+ years, with experience writing about technology, travel, nutritional products, domain names, pets, autism, food, exercise, general topics, and more.
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