Blueberry & Strawberry Buttermilk Muffins and The Epiphany of a Parent's Actions

When you're a toddler, you can't help but look up at them with wonder and awe. You're heart swells everytime you seem them after a long day of being under someone else's care.



When you're a teenager, your heart is still there for them, but your thoughts and interests are elsewhere. No longer do your days revolve around your parents, as much as they do around friends, texting, computer time, and maybe some school work.



When you reach your twenties and find yourself in post-secondary education or with a full-time job or with both, your sudden appreciation for everything your parents have done for you suddenly hits you and you realize the true measure of everything they've sacrificed for you. Their sacrifices were selfless and the only thing wanted in return is your happiness.



The time when you realize that what your parents do for you, what they say to you, and what they prepare you for by "nagging" you, talking to you, and showing an interest in your day-to-day life (as boring as it may be) is the time you realize that the people you've made out to be the bad guys are really the people who've been on your side all along.



When you're a teenager everything seems like it's an apocalypse. Your phone is out-of-date by a month and half, your friends are a bunch of bitches, but now your friends are too clingy, your sister is hogging the bathroom, and your parents won't stop nagging you to do the dishes.



For what it's worth, I've come to realize the innate sacrifices that come with being a parent because I've suddenly been hit by the reality of the real world and it sucks, but I'm thankful that when it all keeps sucking, at least I know how to properly clean a kitchen.