Did you ever forget that you are the parent?
My son had a project due for Hebrew School yesterday, he came home last week very excited about it, worked on it diligently and then stopped before he finished. For the next 3 days we had conversations like this:
Mom: How's your project?
Jonathan: Fine
Mom: Are you done?
Jonathan: Almost
Mom: Do you need help?
Jonathan: No.
Mom: You may want to work on it some more
Jonathan: I know
Mom: Are you finished?
Jonathan: almost
Mom: Are you done yet?
Jonathan: no
etc...etc....etc...
Wednesday comes and guess who doesn't want to go to Hebrew School? lol. I made him go. I am still in mom mode.
We get there and he is begging, almost in tears, to come food shopping with me at Costco.
For a split second I almost gave in. I realized I was going into buddy mode, the 'I will save the day and you will like me better' mode.
I snapped out of it and returned to my sometimes unpopular mommy role. I gave him my short (yes, short) speech and he went into his classroom.
What I want to share is the need to understand, especially as our kids get older, that we are their parent, not their friend. I love my kids, I like my kids, and this can distract from discipline sometimes. We can't be buddy, buddy. It would be a disservice to them if we dropped the ball and they lost a parent for the sake of gaining another friend. Our kids have many friends, but only one mom and dad. I watched a movie once where the little boy asked, "Whose gonna make sure I grow up right?" Even kids know that is our job! They really do.
The Torah does not say honor your friends, it says honor your father and mother. Why are they honoring us? Why are we honoring our parents? Because as parents, we play a very distinct role in our childrens' lives; we have so much to teach them and so little time to do it. My baby just turned 17, and even though we home school and he is with us often, I wonder where the time went.
I just want to remind us all who we are, and not to lose sight of this privilege.
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