My son, a few weeks after he turned 24, called me and started listing all the things I made him do. “You made me do my homework the moment I came home.” You made me do my own laundry” “You made me....etc.”
He was in school in the UK and I’m thinking I’m gonna hang up on you.
All of a sudden he said “Mom, you taught me discipline.” “I could do what I do now if you hadn’t taught me that.” “Thank you.”
I asked him “What did you think I was doing?” He replied “I thought you were being mean.”
Several months later I was taking to a millennial I work with and the he told me he called his mom to say thank you. I asked him “When did you turn 24?” He looked shocked and said “2 weeks ago. How did you know?”
I (and you) look at parenting is not about being your kid’s friend.
Beautiful story about kids. We may be dinosaur but you are right about we should not be kids friend. Parent is our job. Letting them hate us and not being afraid is hard, but oh well. Thanks.