they’ll remember us differently

When I think of my parents, I think of my mom and I think of my dad. I don’t lump them together as one person. They are both so very different – thankfully! We did all kinds of things growing up as a family, but my memories are still very unique to each of them. For whatever reason, this makes parenting with Chris feel freeing.

There are times I want to tell him how to parent – in other words, I want to tell him how I think he should parent. He is a phenomenal dad, but we do things differently and I don’t always recognize the beauty in those differences (aka ‘my way or the highway’). We perceive the world differently. We interact with our kids differently. We are different – thankfully!

There are only 5 people that see me lip sync or dance on a regular basis. They laugh at me, join me, and often shake their heads at me. They also know my performing ends in the living room, but their dad’s only gets started when a real stage is involved.

We visited our college campus over the weekend. Chris led the way to find the 2 main stages on campus. He jumped right up on stage with the girls while I was in the back of the room worried we were breaking some kind of un-posted rule and security was going to throw us out or decide to revoke my degree.

Chris – he just danced. His dad was also found on one stage playing a piano. Those Campbell men….I sure am thankful for them. Unless they try to pull me on a stage, then I will firmly plant my feet on the ground, remain unshakable, and won’t speak to them for a while!

My kids will not remember the same things about me as they remember about Chris. They will remember me differently.

(photo by Jessie Leigh Photography from a “Motherhood” session)

I am only responsible for how I parent, how I interact with my kids, how I love and nurture my relationship with them. Recognizing this helps me cheer on Chris as a dad and see all the goodness he brings to our family instead of getting hung up on ways we do things differently. I am truly thankful they have his personality to counter balance mine and while our kids will form different memories of the two of us, I hope they remember that we were a team and each other’s biggest fan.

 

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