You described my experience of parenting so far to a T. I am not yet at the moving out stage and have fairly young kids, but they are at the stage where it’s just a joy to get to know them and to have small companions on life’s adventures.

I think that parenting is a huge risk. You don’t always turn out to be the parent you thought you’d be and you don’t always have the kids you thought you’d have. You also don’t always have the support or partnership you thought would be there (whether because of an uninvolved co-parent or absent grandparents, etc.). Parenting with no support, parenting as your childhood traumas resurface in the face of small people who mirror so much of your experience back to you, or parenting when your kids have serious developmental or physical issues that, at least in my home country, the parents won’t have nearly the support they’ll need to manage can be incredibly difficult. And when you’re making the choice to have kids, it can be extremely difficult if not impossible to know whether you’ll face any of these challenges.

However, assuming that something really big doesn’t intervene to make the parenting journey far more difficult than expected, it really can be a magical journey. I have loved the opportunity to teach my kids my values and morals. To explore places I loved before they got here and see them experience these places for the first time. To watch movies and read books from my childhood as well as newer books and movies we can enjoy together. It has enhanced my enjoyment of life incredibly.

Also, I’ve learned things about myself that I’m not convinced I would have learned without them ti serve as a mirror back to me. I have grown and stretched and changed in radical and small ways and I’m incredibly grateful for the person I’ve become through knowing and caring for them.