Parenting Is A Lot Like Driving

By Contributor Stephanie Young

When we first learn to drive, we take a class on the rules, the signs, the typical scenarios. But those lessons don’t necessarily prepare us for life on the road.

For example, a few weeks back during an intense Kansas thunderstorm, my husband had to navigate us through golfball-size hail. As hard chunks of ice slammed into the car on a pitch-black country road, visibility became zero.  He finally found a driveway and pulled up next to a barn to wait it out.

No driver’s education prepared us for that.

Driving is affected by weather, road conditions, traffic, other drivers, mechanical problems, bright sun, dark nights, our own state of mind, on and on. Some things you can control and some you can’t.

Parenting is very similar. Oh sure, you can take a childbirth and parenting class. You can read all the books and get all the gear, but nothing can truly prepare you for the wild ride that is a child.

Here are a few signs you might encounter along the path of parenthood.

My favorite is this one. All parenting handbooks should have something like this at the beginning.

How many times have you struggled with which way to go?

And even if you knew for sure, life doesn’t always cooperate.

Ever feel like you’re going in circles, doing and saying the same things over and over, day after day?

There are times of fear – head bonk, broken arm, the time my kiddo wandered out of the children’s church room and it took us 5 minutes to find him.

Or times when you know difficulty lies ahead – divorce or a move, starting school, an illness like asthma or diabetes, break-ups, peer pressure, a tough teacher.

Sometime s you just want to take a break, rest, relax, do anything just for you. But it won’t happen today. You have to keep going.

Because their needs are more immediate and urgent than yours.

There are peaceful days too when everyone is happy and healthy, flourishing and having fun.

And someday, God willing, they will be ready to go out on their own to navigate the winding, bumpy road of life. And we’ll be waiting, just in case they need someone to take the wheel for a little while.

Stephanie Young lives in the heart of Kansas where she is mom to a spirited 7-year-old boy, self-employed with her husband and writes the blog From the Burbs to the Boonies about living large in small-town USA.