The toughest thing about being a parent

What do you think is the most challenging thing that you face as a parent? Problem behaviors? Choosing the right school? Deciding about screen time? Being a parent comes with so many hurdles and curve balls, but the one thing that always weighs on me is this simple question: “Am I making the right decision?”

As a parenting expert, I’ve had to help hundreds and hundreds of parents navigate the most strenuous of situations. I’m confident in my clinical decision making and I also have enough experience to understand that I can always change course if I made an incorrect choice. However, that same mentality doesn’t always readily transfer over to my own parenting life (although I really wish it did). I constantly struggle with whether or not I made the “right” decision for my two boys and it can be quite debilitating when I go down this parenting rabbit hole.

The truth of the matter is that I’m never going to make the perfect choices as a father, no matter how hard that I might try. I’m going to mess up. I’m going to wish I did things differently. I’m going to think I’m doing the right thing, when I’m actually doing the exact opposite. And despite all of this, I have to remind myself (it’s part of the reason I’m writing this blog on this subject) that making both right and wrong decisions are part of the gig that I signed up for as parent. It’s one of the hardest things I face as a parent, and I have to remember that it’s going to be ok. Really. It’s going to be ok.