From the moment you’re born your parents will teach you everything you need to know. They’ll teach you how to walk, talk, how to write your name or ride your first bike. But what our parents teach us doesn’t stop there, while kids now-a-days are too busy focusing on growing up quickly, they tend to miss out on the lessons their mum and dad are trying to teach them which could potentially help them later on in life.
Now at 20 years old, I’m sat thinking about all the lessons my parents have taught me and without realising have helped me through the majority of life events.
- Money Means Nothing: Growing up my parents didn’t really have much money, but this never stopped them from buying the essentials and keeping a roof over my head. However, growing up its safe to say that I was an expensive child, I always wanted the newest toy or the newest IPod, wanting to go to concert after concert etc. But somehow my parents always found a way to get me things I asked for. My Christmas lists would always be crammed with stuff I’d seen in the Argos catalogue and come Christmas day, my parents would’ve tried to get me everything they possibly could’ve off that list. I would say being the only girl in the family, I was definitely spoilt growing up but not the bad kind of spoilt. I understood that not having much money meant not being able to get everything, which is okay, I never expected to get everything that I wanted, I always just appreciate the fact that my parents would always try.
- Family Time is Everything:
When I was a little girl my dad would always surprise us with holidays away, whether these were weekend holidays to Weymouth or holidays abroad to Spain. But either way we got to get away as a family and relax. Thinking back to it, these family holidays were always the best, making so many memories which we always reminisce on. As my brothers and I grew older the family holidays slowly started to stop, they just wasn’t the same. Yearly holidays to Spain turned into a week in Weymouth. Although, my brothers ended up not coming to these holidays we would always go to surprise my nan & auntie, although the whole family wasn’t there it was still always a great time and many memories were made. These times made me realise how sentimental spending time with your family can be. - Believe In Yourself: To say I wasn’t the smartest kid in school would be an understatement, I’d always struggle with my main lessons, especially maths and a majority of other lessons that other people just seemed to pass with flying colours. After doing my GCSE’s and passing near to none of my subjects, I felt like I’d let my family down. When school finished, I ended up going to college but then dropped out after a year. It was at this point I struggled to see where my life was actually going. After a year of deciding what I wanted to do with my life, I decided going back to college would be my best decision, however, after dropping out the first time I was unsure as to whether this was a good choice, I mean if I dropped out the first time, what’s saying I won’t drop out again right? But my parents were the ones that encouraged me to go and do what I want to do, now 3 years later I’m starting to apply for University.
- Be Your Own Person: When going through school, I was never really my own person, I always followed the crowd and done things just because it was considered ‘normal’ at my age. Being a teenager you never really listen to your parents regardless of what they say, but thinking back now, I wish part of me had listened because then maybe growing up I would’ve made better life choices.
- Stick up for Yourself: In primary and secondary school I never really got along with people, I would always be the girl with no friends, who would just sit in the library with her head in a book. Obviously this wasn’t really how I wanted to spend my first year in secondary school because people would find it ‘weird’. That’s when I started to get bullied, I’d be told I looked like a boy (which I did, but not the point), I’d be called fat, ugly etc. But me being me, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t tell anyone and just kept it all to myself and let them carry on. Eventually, out of nowhere I started sticking up for myself, which although was a good thing, it started getting my into trouble because I would start arguments with anyone that would say the tiniest thing bad about me.
- Love Yourself: With magazines using Photoshop to make models look skinnier than they are or body shaming celebrities, it is hard for people to like the skin they are in which can drive people to mental health problems or developing an eating disorder. After seeing these pictures in magazines, I always thought of the models body to be ‘goals’. I always thought they were real, so I started dieting excessively to try and get that body. After things getting bad, my parents made me realise that not having that ‘perfect body’ doesn’t mean anything. Everyone is different in shape, some people are more curvy than others, some are more slimmer than others but it is important to love yourself.
- Accept New Opportunities: Since being in college I have had many opportunities offered to me which could potentially help me later in life. My parents would always encourage me to take these opportunities as they would always be beneficial to me.
These last 3 lessons are really self explanatory which most parents will tell their children as they are growing up:
- The Way Things Are Right Now, Is Not The Way They’ll Be Forever.
- Not Everyone Is Going To Like You
- Treat Others The Way You Want To Be Treated: Although some people may think this bit of advice will get you mugged off (trust me it does) you should always balance this and Sticking up for yourself. If you feel like someone is treating you the way you shouldn’t be treated then stick up for yourself. If you go your whole life on this lesson then it gives people the chance to just walk all over you. However, it also shows people how much of a good person you are.
Although there are only 10 lessons on this post, my parents have taught me a lot throughout my childhood, and still now they teach me new lessons everyday. I appreciate everything my parents have done for me while growing up, although sometimes it might not seem like I do.
x
Basically Amy 