Have I Done Enough

Let’s face it…as parents we often find ourselves asking if we have done enough when it comes to preparing our children for this cruel world we live in. This is especially true when the new school year begins. In a world where our Black sons have to worry about the mentality and motives of the random neighborhood watch person, racist cops or laws such as “stand your ground” and our Black daughters being attacked by random lunatics while enjoying a night out with friends, it’s hard let them out of our sight.

As I prepare to send my daughter off to college, I am struggling with the fact that I won’t talk to her every day, be able to tuck her in at night or randomly check to make sure she is sleeping soundly in the middle of the night. It’s going to be a rough couple of weeks ya’ll…please pray for me. I know we raised a beautiful, strong, independent, and smart young lady, but that monster called doubt keeps making me ask myself if I did enough to prepare her. Did we provide her with the skills to know how to get out of sticky situations, to trust her intuition and recognize when she needs help? One thing I promised myself when I found out I was having a girl was to never sugar coat things, and to make her comfortable talking to me about anything. I believe I accomplished that. God has blessed me to be able to share my college experiences with her and real life situations. When I went to college I had to navigate these things on my own…Thank God for praying parents…LOL As parents we don’t give ourselves enough credit for the hard work and dedication we put in raising our kids. It’s hard work, and that work doesn’t stop when they turn 18 and leave for the next chapter in their lives. I used to say I couldn’t wait until my kids go to college, well newsflash…it’s here and wish I could turn back the clock.

The bottom line is I know God will protect my babies way better than I can, but I also recognize that God blessed me with the tools to help with that protection. So even though she will be hundreds of miles away from me, I know that she will be surrounded by angels looking out for her and have the 18 years of guidance we have provided to get her through the tough times. My prayer is that she remembers she is a beautiful Black Queen, she enjoys her college years, remembers that she got some home training, calls me at least 3 times a week, always follows her gut (because that is God speaking), study hard in order to play harder later and be a blessing wherever she goes. I am excited to see what this next chapter in life holds for all of us. I know it will bring an abundance of growth, love, reflection and of course life being…

Lived BLOUNT-ly