Thank you to all the parents who are trying

After reading the post about the boy wanting a mom and feeling like she didn't want him, I felt compelled to write this. It's a throwaway account because I'm not looking for sympathy. (And apologies for posting on April 1st; I needed to say this)I grew up without a father. It never occurred to me that he didn't want me. I knew that he fought with my mother, so I knew they divorced because of that. While I often wanted a father, and was envious of many friends who had one, it was more an itch I couldn't scratch instead of a real problem. Meanwhile, my mother was never home, always away in a bar, offering her "companionship" to whoever bought the next round. I had plenty of temporary fathers—all of them very nice until they got tired of mom.As an adult, I finally tracked my father down, living in another country. As it turns out, I wasn't wanted. At all. Neither were several siblings I hadn't known about.I tried over the years to get to know him and he was moderately polite about it, but the last straw was when I took his grandchild to see him. He didn't care and pretty much ignored his grandchild, my wife, and myself. I've never seen him again.He's in a nursing home now and I've recently received notice that the country he lives in often requires children to pay for their parent's retirement care if the parents cannot. Finding out that I might be financially on the hook for that SOB is the shit icing on this shit cake.I'm a moderately successful middle-aged man still struggling to come to grips with my father rejecting me. I can't even imagine the struggle that little boy is having to deal with.For all you parents trying to figure out how to be a good parent for your children, thank you for being there. When you can't figure out how to deal with your child's tantrum, it means that you're there for your child's tantrum. Don't know how to get your children to brush their teeth? At least you're trying. When they grow up, of all the things they can say, "mama/papa didn't want me" won't be one of them.As a parent, I know how hard things can be at times, but if you're still there for your child, never sell yourself short. Many of us would have loved to have had you for a parent. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2CN3lNf