Parenthood

“Parenthood-It’s so easy” A young girl said to me the other day, “Parenthood-It’s so easy” and I thought to myself ‘Are you kidding me?’ You go through 9 months of pregnancy, the painful childbirth, then you struggle through tears and tantrums and hormones. Mothers are personal doctors, maids, chefs, cleaners and counsellors. Dads are personal coaches, bodyguards, builders and handy mans. They serve their children in hope that when they are old and crusty their children will serve them. Parenthood is anything but easy but easy, but all the good things never are. Like in the movie Parenthood; whatever happens to the children reflects back on the parents and affects them socially, financially and career wise. Like when Justin misses the catch in baseball, many of the Dads share conflict with Gil. Also when Julie and Tod have a fight about drag racing in front of Helen and her date. This embarrasses and ridicules the parents because of what the child has done. When Gil quits his job because he is stressed and worked up, he puts the family in jeopardy as Karen has fallen pregnant and Gil was the only source of income. The family in Little Miss Sunshine is also a good example of tough parenthood, with a son who is on a strike which includes him not speaking and communicating through pen and paper. Dwayne is on a no-speaking strike until he gets to go to flight school and learns to be a jet pilot. Olive is a seven year old and all she wants to do is compete in beauty pageants, this whole movie revolves around the trip to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in California. There is much family conflict on the way as they are all confined into a yellow kombi van and what’s said between two people can be heard by all. Like the many times when Grandpa swears to the children, the parents don’t want their 16 and 7 year old kids knowing all the swear words at such a young age so they fight. Parenting is the hardest, most exhausting, expensive yet most