A while ago, I was waiting in line to return my son’s football uniform. The season was over, and the football coach wanted the equipment back. As I stood in that long line, I was thinking that my son should be doing this, not me. After all, it is his equipment and his responsibility, right? But, that wasn’t to be on this day because my son was home sick, and the equipment was due. As I was wallowing in my thoughts, I couldn’t help but hear my youngest daughter, who insisted on coming with me for the ride, singing that Disney song, “Let It Go.”
She was singing at the top of her lungs, and she kept singing “LET IT GO” over and over, and over again as I was waiting in that long line. Eventually, her passionate singing and the lyrics of letting it go were ringing in my ears and persuaded me to just let it go. She was having fun. She was being really cute and not hurting anyone.
As I was standing there in that line that wasn’t moving, I got to thinking about kids, being a parent, and of course, letting it go. I thought about what an old-timer had once told me. He said our assumptions of how life and how parenting is supposed to be or supposed to look gets us into trouble sometimes.
For some reason, when we are younger, we have these visions about how everything will play out before we even get onto the parenting playing field. Everything usually looks nice and proper when we’re thinking about how life will be for us as adults and parents. It never looks messy in our daydreams, and that’s where we can get into a little trouble as parents. Life is messy. So, let’s wisely choose to let it go when things don’t look like we think they should.
Now, as my Granddaddy always said, “Go learn, lead, and lay the way to a better world for all of us.” Just let it go. And once again parents, thanks in advance for all that you do, and all that you will do…