Ida Mwangi

Parent. This word sends more chills down the spine than meeting a crush would. It’s a responsibility oh so feared; a position oh so revered. Time and again, I, you, we have found ourselves in the mix of “I’m going to be the best parent to my kid”. I champion it. “Go for it!” I encourage myself. Will we really make it though? Have we really stopped to imagine the reality of our words? They say that life is an adventure. In its highs and lows, I’ve learnt a lot. Dreams are crashed. Promises are broken. Paths are abandoned. In short, life changes. In this regard, many of us will end up being the best parents only theoretically. Clean your house for two hours. Watch the humans you created destroy it within ten minutes. Repeat for twenty years. This is parenthood. Spend your hard-earned salary on the best cutlery in town. Pleasure your ears with the sound of the pieces being broken by your little bundles of joy. You think of beating the crap out of them. For a piece of glass? Is it worth it? There goes parenthood. As if that’s not enough, your teenage daughter decides to go for a party against your orders. There and then you realize, it’s never that easy. For you’ve talked to her for days on end. She just never listens. You didn’t either, anyway. In the words of Matt Walsh, parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do. Think your parents are doing a lousy job? Well, think twice. It’ll take more than you can imagine to be better than them. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Just be a real one. Be who you needed when you were young.