Vindication

Once you become a parent, you strive to raise your children the best way you know how. You read all the current literature and listen to all the experts. But most importantly, you are careful to avoid making all the stupid mistakes your parents made. After all, the only reason you have the emotional, mental, and every other kind of problem you have is because of the wrong things your parents did while you were growing up.

The years arrive when your children become teenagers and educate you on what a rotten parent you are because of all the mistakes you have made since their birth (and are continuing to make during those lovely teenage years). Eventually you emerge from those teenage years, waving the kids off to college and eventually their own homes.

If you're really lucky, you get the ultimate exoneration - grandchildren. Of course, you realize once again what an irresponsible parent you were by allowing your child to sleep in a dangerous crib, fed them unhealthy food, let them watch television, and encouraged them to play with life-threatening toys because of the NEW latest literature and experts.

Then you see a picture like this, and realize maybe you weren't such a careless parent after all. You see a remembrance of a time past and another baby now grown to an adult. You realize that in spite of any "mistakes" you made, you must have done pretty good - how else could you get such a sweetie as this?

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Things that make today great: Amerigo family brunch; cleaning up after Rambo's rampage; brief e-chat with Maribeth; Molly bringing burgers