Parenting comes with a huge responsibility and not everyone can do it well. But we can always try to be better.
While a lot of us wish many things for our parents, including their happiness and well being. But if given a chance what would you change about your parents?
Here’s what Redditors had to say and it’s truly relatable:
1. “I’d make them more affectionate towards each other. Both are great parents, but they aren’t great spouses to each other.”
2. “Nothing. They’re flawed like everyone else, but I love them so much just how they are. Actually, maybe I’d change them to make them both indestructible and immortal. That’d be good.”
3. “If possible, I would change my mom’s childhood & give her the life she deserved. one of happiness, safety, & unconditional love. I was a parentified child (mainly in the emotional sense above all else- being their therapist, emotional support when they were never mine, etc.). I would change that. make them emotionally & physically present in my life, mainly during childhood. I’d also make my dad not be an alcoholic.”
4. “It’d be nice if they could communicate in a way that wasn’t constant bickering/arguing.”
5. “I wish my dad was a dad and not a provider.”
6. “Being more open-minded, it’s 2022 for God’s sake. Arranged marriage should not be an expectation or a social practice FFS. Until that changes, I’m going to stay 5,000 miles away from where you can’t dictate what I can and cannot do.”
7. “Once in a while after a bit of wine my mom is really hilarious and swears and tells stories about when she was a teenager and she’s always so bad in those stories! But in regular life, she can be a bit of a tight ass, real small conservative, and tasks people living together without being married. I want a cool wine mom, less a mom who hides my shorts she thinks are too tight.”
8. “Not a damn thing. They weren’t perfect, I’m not perfect, and I’m okay with that. Nothing wrong with working with the hand you got dealt. Maybe I’m just being positive?”
9. “Perspectives on happiness, success, and love for their children.”
10. “Mostly my mom’s confrontational judgy personality and about 1/4 of her family.”
11. “I wish they weren’t so overprotective. I’m 19 and have to lie about my social media usage, lie about my friend’s mental health, haven’t ever even dated (both my relationships have been with people 2 continents away, and over an Insta fan account so they couldn’t find out) and can’t wear crop tops without them flipping out.”
12. “I’d make them feel young again. Other than that, I’d make them less judgmental.”
13. “How they communicate, and how strict they are.”
14. “I wished my dad was more emotionally open with my brother and me growing up. A lot of the issues both of us can be traced back to him. We are literally incapable of expressing intense emotions with each other without it becoming volatile.”
15. “Nothing. I am the way I am because of them. I’m not perfect but I am pretty damn self-sufficient and have been taking care of myself since I was young. Sometimes I get sad I didn’t really have a childhood but I would be where I am now if they were different.”
16. “Well, my mom was my biggest role model and best friend. I’d give anything to have her alive, and well, with me.”
17. “Love for them to show more physical affection towards their kids, remind them they are there for em. And book their therapy sessions and massages.”
18. “Their ridiculous ages when they married – my mother was 15 (and pregnant, of course) and my father was 19. They tried, but were too young to be married and raise two children.”
19. “I would take their childhood/life trauma away so that they can heal the past and be happy.”
20. “I would want them to be open to getting professional mental health help. We can’t turn back time, but we can try to be better in the present and future.”
Do you agree with us?
