Musings

Just some perceptions with no general direction.... Not about nursing or birth or anything... Just some musings (that's what you get when I have time on my hands).

I watched the presidential debates the other night. Well, I should say I watched the 20/20 episode before them and then I watched the debate until I fell asleep in the middle of it.

The 20/20 episode highlighted both candidate's childhood, education and political and family life up until this point in time. I found it incredibly intriguing.

While the candidate's experiences and upbringing were as different as any two people on the globe could be, they were strangely similar. Similar in that both candidates came from dysfunctional families and parents who were less than ideal but whom they were still striving to impress and gain favor with.

It struck me. If the two men who are running as presidential candidates of the USA survived dysfunction including alcoholic fathers, then our own dysfunctional families cannot serve as an excuse for failure anymore.

And, if these two men can overcome the errors of their upbringing, then won't our children be able to overcome our errors? Sometimes I find myself in tears regretting things I've done as a mother and a wife. If only I could go back in time, then my children wouldn't have to endure my mistakes. Aren't we as mothers prone to feel this kind of guilt?

But, if Barack Obama can overcome being left by two parents; and, John McCain can rise up after feeling he left his father down when he read a confession beaten out of him in a POW camp; then, our kids have to have nearly the same chance of acheiving greatness one day.

I'm believing more and more that everyone has some dysfunction in their family - whether they admit it or not... And, it is those who try to portray perfection who are probably the most inundated with dysfunction.