Carol expressed another concern during those years of homeschooling in the early 1980’s. “Do you think our children will turn out all right?"

 

I am not sure when parents are supposed to know that.  It seems that we wait for our children to mature into adults, we watch the kinds of decisions they make, and we determine if we agree with the decisions.

 

There is a danger in that.  The element of the “unknown” will factor into their decisions -- the “unknowns” are unknown to us, but not unknown to them.  We cannot parent the unknowns out of their lives and we cannot control them.

 

Our adult children are free-will agents and they are required to make decisions apart from us.

 

Our goal as parents is to “prepare our children for adulthood.”  We cannot do it FOR them, but we can do our best to prepare them.  Their actions, choices, and decisions are ours to watch.