are yours like mine??

ahh...kids! They can be our biggest blessing, our worst curse, they can be a bane, a boon or anything in between! Believe me, once they are potty trained, then the real challenge awaits, for they now are independent! They go to school, they see things and hear things, which their little brains absorb and suddenly, everything we have taught until now is all hearsay because, "well, Johnny said so!" My children are all flown from the nest and yet, I lie awake at night, wondering and worried about how things are. Do they know how to fill up their car with gas on a day when it is cheaper than when the prices may go up? and what about those oil changes? Do they sort their clothes on laundry day, do they have enough food, is that boy/girl they are going with right for them? and on it goes.

Then come the stepkids! I have one stepdaughter from a previous marriage who also had her share of ups and downs, but has leveled out nicely! My other two from my current marriage encountered a sink hole and I forever will ask myself, "what did I do/what could I have done differently?" Then there is a gal who is like a daughter to my husband. She is a beacon in the night with her aspirations to make the world a better place, despite the crud she endured while growing up. My kind of gal!

I have learned that you don't lose sight of kids, not ever. They may treat you like trash, they love you, they leave you...but they are still of your blood. So you keep the door in your heart open to them in the event of "someday." Maybe "someday" they will have it figured out, and that may not be until they have kids of their own and the light bulb goes off. Those kids should "know better." They should respect you as their parent. But they think they are right and believe me....arguing does no good. So love them, nurture them and hope for the best, cry for the worst, then wait. All Prodigal sons and daughters do return someday.