What do you wish your parents did more of while you were growing up?

21 comments

  3. Say yes instead of no when I ask them for something, like going to a classmates birthday party. Over time, I adopted a “if I can’t have anything, then I shouldn’t care about anything” attitude.

  4. Let me fail more.

    I was insulated from it, parents did most everything for me growing up when I moved out on my own I was not prepared to be an adult.

  5. I wish my parents just encouraged me to try my best, and then just left it at that (provided that I actually tried). Instead, they were always so focused on the end result (like getting an A in a class), and ultimately didn’t care if I truly learned the material or not. It left me deathly afraid of failure in my youth, at a time where failing would have been a great learning opportunity and had the lowest stakes.

  7. Push me to pursue my goals.

    Around the 8th grade, I was very outgoing and ambitious and I was doing well until for some reason my mom kept holding me back with all the “What ifs” – What if this happens, what if you fail, what if you get scared, what if you get hurt. Eventually, hearing it enough times it began to fill my head with doubt. I started doubting myself a lot. I stopped doing things because I would ask myself “What if I do fail…” then I’d start to panic and get anxious and I would just not do anything at all.

    So parents quit putting your anxieties and worries onto your kids. It’ll hinder them in more ways than you think.

  9. Kick my ass to do stuff I didn’t do myself. Never learned an instrument, was never on any sports teams. They were great parents and enabled me to do anything I was interested in. However, I severely lack the capability of just pushing through with something I don’t particularly want to do.

  10. I wished they pushed the religion a little less hard and used that to push me to work on things I showed interest in. I thing religion taught me a lot of good but I don’t think I needed quite that much of it

  11. I wish my dad had been a bit more of a hard ass, especially on diet and weightlifting, because he played football and soccer through highschool. Being vegan just made me undersized and I was never allowed to lift on a regular basis growing up because they thought it’d make me a jock asshole.

  12. Mother: Being around

    Father: Be competent, not so stubborn and actually preferably send me to live with my uncle when he was alive

    I can go into more graphic detail but I’m just not fond of either one

  13. Wish they were better with their money/stricter about saving, etc… It’s amazing they even have any, to the point where they are the last people I’ll ask for financial advice.

  14. Bring real parents instead of drunken abusive assholes would have been a good start.

  15. To tell me she is proud of me more.

    Seriously, studying your butt off to have pure As and Bs just for your parent say “Thats your job” kills any motivation to a small kid. Especially when you don’t get anything for “doing your job” lmao

  16. Help me find and cultivate my interests instead of fitting me into what they expected me to like

  17. Do things as husband and wife. Not split time with me like a divorced family.

  19. Pushed me out of my shell and taught me to stand up for myself. Learning to do that in secondary school was awful.

  21. I wish my parents had regarded emotions more seriously. Seeing as I might have autism, and therefore my parents might too, has led me to understand that they just *couldn’t* (not wouldn’t) discuss emotions. Or anything personal. I’ve been alive for almost thirty years and you know what? I don’t know a darn *thing* about my parents. I know their mannerisms and what things annoy me about them, and I know their actions and what’s hurt me in the past, but I know nothing of their childhoods or dreams or wants to interests. I don’t know their favourite songs or favourite foods; they’re total strangers to me.

    I wish they could’ve checked up on their own mental health issues and internal issues; maybe this would’ve made them act differently and less violent out of anxiety. I wish they’d considered my own problems with care and consideration versus blaming *me* for my depression and cutting myself.

    Yes, they supported me and my craft and urged me to follow my dreams but at the same time…there’s just more they could’ve done. It’s awful to regard your parents and think that you would be just like them if fortune hadn’t favoured you a bit in life, and if you didn’t have the care to know yourself and reflect and change yourself.

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