desperate reminders

One of the things that terrifies me about the thought of ever having kids is the idea that no matter what you do, they can still turn out to be total hellions. I think we all know families like this, where you wonder how in the hell some great people turned out such a difficult child.

Since I'm not even dating anyone, I really don't think about actually having kids. But when I saw Desperate Housewives this past Sunday, it brought these thoughts back to mind. In case you didn't see it, let me quickly recap. Bree (the anal/perfect housewife) has two kids that have turned out to do just about everything wrong that's possible.

Bree said to her son that she doesn't know what she did wrong because she worked so hard to teach them what's right. Her son then said that it's not that they don't know the difference; it's just that they choose wrong. He goes on to say that when a parent pushes so hard in one direction, the other one starts to look really appealing.

It reminded me a lot of my own family. I'm the oldest of four, and my younger three siblings caused their fair share of trouble during their teens (though all is well now). My mom is so quick to tell them how to raise their own children AND tell me how my siblings should raise their own children -- her way, of course.

I had to remind her that things weren't exactly perfect on our end, and no one person is really an expert on how to raise a child. I told her something along the lines of Bree's son in that it wasn't like she didn't teach us what was right and wrong, but the others just didn't care. They wanted to do what seemed fun to them.

I, on the other hand, am an entirely different story. My parents were so strict that I was too scared of them to ever do anything that was really bad. I told my mom this and pointed out that it can't be a coincidence that I'm the one that is probably the least close to her, not to mention the well-known aversion to hugging or any physical touch. After some thought, she agreed that might the case, and then I asked her: "so was it worth it?"

And for once, she didn't have an answer.