Parenting is a process
I was making roasted broccoli recently and it made me think of parenting. Stick with me on this...
You see, to make this dish, I put the pan in the oven and then preheat to a rip-roaring, blazing 500 degrees. When the oven is ready, I pull the pan out and quickly put on the broccoli.
Sounds boring enough. But it's not.
I stand to the side of the oven when I open the door to avoid singeing my face with a blast of heat that's strong enough to melt cheap oven mitts.I grab the pan, move fast, and pray my new oven mitts will last until I get to the stove-top.I dump the veggies on the pan.I bob my head as the broccoli shoots up a burst of steam while the pan immediately warps.
The whole thing feels dramatic and slightly dangerous (like making a flambé dish or something!).
The temperature clash between the super-hot metal and the room-temperature broccoli is too much for the materials and if either of the elements were feeling beings, they'd undoubtedly call it "brutal."
By the time dinner is served, the pan uncurls, and the resulting version of broccoli is absolutely the best. (If you're interested, here's the full recipe, but I digress...)
Yes - this experience is very much like parenting:
The heat is UP and you feel the intensity.
All participants get a little warped in the middle of the process.
If you don't pay attention or are ill-equipped, you can get burned.
The harshness of the process makes you appreciate the final result.
You stick with a recipe you know works!
Yup. I see word pictures everywhere and most of them say, "Hang in there! Be encouraged!!!"
I hope you see them too.