Thank You To My Parents For Letting Me Fuck Up Just Enough

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We live in a world where we want everyone to think we have it better. We want to show off the newest iPhones and nicest cars. We want to brag about how awesome our lives are and what we have through social media. We want to show others how great our family is and how well we’ve got it by vacations and luxury items. We want others to think our lives are perfect and that our families aren’t flawed.

But in all actuality there is literally no such thing as a normal or perfect family, no matter how perfect things might seem from the outside and for that I am thankful. My family isn’t perfect, I’m a prime example of that, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

So thank you mom and dad for letting me fuck up just enough.

Thank you for letting me make mistakes without constantly breathing down my neck making sure I didn’t trip or fall. You let me trip and fall, and you also watched me crash and burn. I surely didn’t make you happy and I definitely didn’t make you proud from every decision I’ve made, but you let me live free enough to realize when I’ve fucked up.

You guided me in the right direction, but you didn’t hold my hand. You told me it was okay to cry, but you didn’t wipe my tears. You let me know when I fucked up, but you didn’t let me get off the hook that easily.

You grounded me, took my phone away from me, you yelled at me but mostly, you made me realize where I went wrong. You always questioned me on why I did something stupid and you made me aware of the consequences of my actions. You didn’t let me off easy, but you always let me off at some point.

I can say I’ve fucked up a lot of times, but I’ve never fucked up the same thing twice. You made me learn from my mistakes or at least made me better at covering my tracks. You made me learn that if I didn’t listen to you there would be consequences for my actions. You made me learn that as many times as I do fuck up you’re still my parents and you still love me, and you always will.

You didn’t encourage me not to drink when I was underage because you knew I was going to do it anyway. Instead you encouraged me to be smart, stay safe and not drive anywhere or get in the car with someone who had been drinking. You didn’t encourage me to go out on the weekend, but you didn’t play dumb. Instead you encouraged me to let you know where I am for safety reasons and to call you if something happened. You didn’t try to control or take away my teenage years, but you always made sure I was safe and tried to encourage me to be smart. 

You didn’t play dumb, you didn’t act like you had the perfect daughter because we all know you didn’t, but you encouraged me to be honest. You encouraged me to trust you and let you know where I am and what I’m doing. You knew I was going to fuck up. You knew there would be a time where I was going to start making poor decisions, but you always stood by me and you made me learn from my choices.

So, thank you for letting me fuck up the right amount.

Thank you for only telling me what direction to go, but letting me wander and decide which direction I actually wanted to head in.

I know that direction didn’t always make you happy, but it helped me learn and it helped me become the person I am today. You taught me a lot about life, but you let me teach myself a little bit too and for that I thank you.

I thank you mostly because by letting me fuck up on my own I had to learn on my own and without all those lessons I learned along the way I wouldn’t be who I am today.