Falling Apples Report... They continue to cling to the base of the tree.........................

I have three adult children, ages 28, 26, and 18. Not so surprisingly they continue to show aspects of my personality, something that I am getting better at accepting, but also makes me want to remind the parents out there that the eyes are watching and learning. Here are the latest examples of my offspring acting just like good old mom...

My oldest received an offer to take another step up the corporate ladder, and she has decided to accept. The most exciting part to her...They will be "blowing up" the current system and building a new one from the ground up. As do I, the girl loves a good challenge, and has strong opinions in just how the new build should go, for the betterment of mankind of course. She is also not afraid to ruffle feathers of "important" people to assist them in seeing and understanding her wisdom as to the way things need to go.

My youngest came home the other day unable to contain her excitement. What was so great in her world? She had been watching for a certain comforter to go on sale enough to be a reasonable purchase, and it finally had done so. In addition, she had a gift card to purchase it with, AND the store had undies NINETY (90) percent off so they ended up being fifty CENTS a pair. Her commentary, " I wanted to buy them all it was such a good deal, but really, how many pairs of underwear does one person need?" EXACTLY! P.S. Upon checking Saturday's early sale prices she discovered the comforter had been further discounted for a few, "door buster" hours. She didn't have time to get the price difference herself, but she sweetly convinced her boyfriend to pick up the receipt and get to the store before 1:00 PM so she could get an additional twenty-six dollars off the comforter. That's my girl!

My middle child, my son, continues to believe that life must be a struggle and stay in a frame of mind that keeps these thoughts his reality. I spent so much of my twenties living the lie that life HAS to be hard. Being in chaos was the only time life felt normal, so if there wasn't chaos, it wasn't long before I was (subconsciously) creating some. When there was a fleeting moment of peace I would find myself holding my breath, waiting for the other shoe to fall. Eventually, I found a way out of this mind set, and I am confident that my son will also, in time, discover his own path to inner freedom and acceptance. As I tell him, "he has everything inside of him that he needs to live whatever life he chooses to live, and I am confident in his abilities."

I find it interesting that while I have/had one parenting style the three of them picked different parts of me to emulate. I guess that speaks to the different personalities and needs of my children, and proves that there can be no such thing as cookie cutter parenting, no matter how much I tried to keep things equal between them as they were growing up.