What the.........

I am firm believer that people have a minds eye. Its the ability to see what something will look like without it being in front of you or even put together. Its being able to look at a table or desk and just by picturing the room you want it in, you know exactly where it will fit.
I also believe that the moment we find out we are going to be parents we use our minds eye to picture our child. I say with certainty that we see an infant who sleeps through the night, a toddler who reads, a respectful, polite teenager, and a well balanced adult. We have expectations for who our children will turn into with our guidance. There is a confidence we feel. Knowing we will learn from the mistakes made by our parents generation.
I know I felt this way. I cried for joy when I found out I would be a mother. I read to the fetus that was growing inside me. I took my vitamins, stayed away from caffeine, and did all I could to protect and nurture my unborn child. I did all of this in preparation for the person I wanted him to be.
Then it happens, the moment when you realize they are more like you than you want them to be. It is different for each parent. Mine didn't happen when I learned Sammy wanted to watch TV ( I had assumed he would want to use his imagination and would have no interest in the television), it doesn't happen when he rolls down his window in the car to yell out to anyone who looks older than 30 to say" hey grandpa what are you doing?" Nor does it happen when he tells he says "excuse me I passed gassed" to the cashier at the grocery store. No, these have just become expected. For me it happened when we were at Keisha's house and the boys were playing together. I don't even remember the details that led up to Sammy saying "what the?" He added no words after that statement. But I realized that for all I had done to make sure he was better than me, he actually turned out to be more like me than I had realized before. Now, don't get me wrong I don't make a habit of yelling random things out the car window, and I certainly don't loose control of my bodily functions in the check out lane. But, so many times I have thought or even expressed that very statement. What the? So it has turned out he isn't like me when I was a child. He is picking up mannerisms from me now! So many times during my daily routine I think or say "what the heck are you two doing?" or "what in the world would make you think that is OK?" And I will admit that I have my days of thinking "what the H- E- L- L have I gotten myself into?"
So for all the planning we do to make our children better there will come the moment it will become clear that they are trying and planning to be like us. To that I say " what the heck are they thinking?"