When my children were young, I remember reading a book about the dark side of parenting. I was so relieved to hear someone tell the truth about the range of feelings we experience as a parent that I recommended it to friends. They didn't share my enthusiasm. Most of us enter into parenting with the naive notion that we're going to do it better than our parents. We become the parent we wish we had, which is, of course, not the parent they need. Parenting is hands-down the hardest job on the planet. Each child is different and no manual comes at birth. You learn, if you're lucky, as you go along
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