Parenting a Child is the Most Rewarding Experience

I am blessed with two beautiful children, an eight-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son, and while I certainly have had some very frustrating moments, I can honestly say that parenting a child is the most rewarding experience in life.

When my wife first became pregnant, it was the happiest and most nerve-wracking day of our lives. We both wanted to have children and felt like we were both ready, but then the reality of parenting a child actually set in and we started to think, “What have we got ourselves into?”

I guess you are now keenly aware that in nine months, another human being will be brought into this world that is completely and totally dependent on you for everything, and that is going to look to you to be his or her provider.

It is a daunting proposition. Then you start to think about all of the things that he or she will have to go through, like being picked on in school, or falling off of a bicycle for the first time, or having his or her heart broken, and you start to wonder if you made the right choice.

The thought of parenting a child suddenly did not seem like the picture-perfect scenario we had imagined. I was envisioning taking my son to Little League baseball games and on fishing trips. I imagined him being smart, popular and athletic, and I never thought about the fact that he would have to face some difficulties in life that would cause him pain.

My wife and I talked about it for a long while, and she told me that I was thinking just like a father. She said that parenting a child, like anything else in life, has its good points and bad points, and that all we could do was raise him the best way we knew how, give him all of the love and attention he needs and hope for the best.

When my son was born, I realized that I never should have second-guessed myself in the first place. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing your children for the first time and knowing that you are their father. Their whole life is ahead of them and they are so helpless, and it really makes you want to be a better man.

Two years later, we had our daughter, and got that feeling all over again. My son and daughter are both in elementary school right now and doing well. They have had their problems, but they have also had a lot of great times and seem to be pretty happy with their lives. Parenting a child is not always easy, but  it has been the most rewarding experience of my life.