John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Modern Parenting

Modern parents are often criticized for being too soft on their kids–with both advice and expectations.

Today I wrote and sent a letter to my son for his senior retreat. It was supposed to be full of wisdom and fond memories we have had together. And, I suppose, I took an admirable stab at both.

However, I keep chuckling about how telling my letter was.

The first paragraph was a long apology for sending him out into a rainy campground without electricity or running water for several days.

Followed by a second paragraph which apologized repeatedly for not having any new wisdom that I’d saved up just for this occasion– and that I was basically just recycling old wisdom and advice he’d already heard from me dozens of times.

Which makes me wonder if he’ll even bother getting to the third paragraph.

Which I forgot to apologize for and may catch him completely off guard.