Flying Alone With Your Kids? Make Sure You Have Proof of Your Relationship
I’m going to admit it. It took me a while, but I eventually decided to have an open relationship with my children.
And while the openness in my relationship with my children was always something I’ve actively desired, I never fully realized how much it would impact my life.
My relationship with my children is different from my relationship with my parents. I would never refer to myself as a parent. I’m nothing like them. I spent years living away from my parents while I was growing up, and I couldn’t have been more different from them.
However, as I grew up, there were many times where I felt like I was their sole source of support and that I needed them to be happy for me.
I went through a lot. I was physically abused. I saw family members being abused. I had people I love and care about who were suffering because of it.
I’m not making excuses for my family members, because they know they can’t fully be accountable for all of my suffering. They can’t fully justify my decisions.
And while I wish things could have been different, I was so lucky to have a father who tried to make the best of our horrible situation by being a positive influence on how he treated me as a child.
It’s been said that if you’re lucky enough to have a parent like my father, then you’re lucky enough.
In the beginning, my relationship with my father was something we’d both struggle to define.
We weren’t good at defining things. He was so hard on me. He was the one who made me swear off alcohol for life, and he was the one who constantly encouraged me to pursue my dreams.
He would literally stand in front of me and quote lyrics from songs on the radio, and he would say things like, “Yeah, you don’t have to put up with me. Look what I’ve sacrificed for you. Look what you’ve put up with.”
We worked through things. There were times when it was harder for me to accept the way he treated me. However, these things eventually grew to become less of a struggle in my eyes. He accepted the fact that I felt like he never accepted anything about me, and we worked through