Why do we take our parents for granted?

[bitesizedonut]

Being a parent is hard. When your children idolize you and view you as a perfect being, it is hard when that image of you comes crashing down... when they start to realize you are only human. You want to give them everything in the wold, and yet, you know you can't if you want them to develop character. You want life to be easy, but it isn't. And there is nothing you can do to change that.

Our parents can never give us enough. We always want more.

My mom and I have been up and down, as with any relationship. We've had our share of arguments, but we've also spent a lot of wonderful quality time together. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer a year ago, and has managed to live past the doctor's expected "death date" for her. She is not undergoing chemotherapy - but she does take some medication for the pain. I am lucky to have had her as long as I have, lucky that I didn't allow the strain of teenage years to weigh too heavily on our adult relationship, lucky I have kept contact, and lucky to have resolved our differences (even before she told me about her diagnosis).

But for others... why is it so easy to say goodbye? So easy to let things ruin your relationship? So easy to let such an important bond slip through your fingertips. So easy not to put yourselves in their shoes? So easy not to forgive - to hold a grudge? We have to live with every decision we make in life, can you live with the ones you have made so far?

I am of the belief that family is important and no matter what disagreements may lie between you and your parents, no matter what grievances are their, they are still your parents. Why have we lost sight of these beliefs in contemporary society? Why have we lost respect for our elders? Why do we take ANYTHING in life for granted?

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[stevo]

I guess because as children, teenagers, or young adults for that matter, we think we've seen enough to stand on our own two feet and don't need our parents for anything. Some of us have forgotten the fact that they brought us in, raised us, and taught us how to survive. I'm not trying to classify or appoint myself as a saint, but I treasure the relationship that I do have with my parents, but that isn't to say that I haven't had it out with them from time to time. Everyone has a difference of opinion with their parents at some point or another, and maybe, just maybe, that is one reason why some of us do take our parents for granted. Some of us, not all, think that we know it all, and have no reason for our parents. Or maybe we're just too focused on ourselves and our own problems and take them for granted-

[cjwright79]

Well, we feel that they have brought us into existence so that they could lighten their own load. We feel that they created us, almost out of spite for themselves. It's a hard road to understanding that no one can tell you how to feel, and that everybody has their separate agenda.