“Pick your battles”

Originally posted on Tumblr

I’ve been thinking about this concept a lot lately. I hate cliches, especially for something as important as parenting, but this one matters.

My dad never did it. He came from the perspective that his thoughts on EVERYTHING were correct, simply because he was the parent.

He would push back and fight my brother and I on the most frivolous stuff we disagreed with him about…big or small, it didn’t matter, unless it was his way, it was WRONG.

For me, I coped by hiding stuff when I could, eventually figuring out ways to make him think something was his idea, and walked out of childhood with a crap ton of anxiety about if I’m ever doing things right. My brother lied and hid stuff and eventually just said “fuck it all I can’t do anything right” and made some REALLY poor life choices just to spite my dad.

Anyway, if you are a parent or ever plan to be, I BEG you to let your kids have their way on stuff that doesn’t really matter or won’t hurt them when you can. Teach them to think critically about options and not just blast them with the “BECAUSE I’M THE PARENT AND I SAID SO” mentality 24/7.

Pick your battles. Please.