Last week I had a born again Christian tell me to find God – I replied that while I respected her beliefs I was brought up an SDA (Seventh-Day Adventist) so I didn’t need anyone beating me over the head with a bible because I’d had that for 35 years.  Her reply back was that she ‘wished she had my childhood’.  My first response was WTF?  Then, I found it interesting that because I had a religious childhood that she automatically thought it was better than hers without knowing anything whatsoever about my life.

Why do people assume that everyone else had a better childhood than they did?  Seriously, NO-ONE had a childhood like The Brady Bunch, The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie!!  Those are make believe families in a make believe world.  That perfect childhood that everyone wishes they had, that everyone else had just doesn’t exist.

All the people that have come through my door and into my life, there are probably only a couple that have ever said that they’re childhood wasn’t too bad, yes, some are a hell of a lot worse than others, some people had horrendous childhoods and others not as bad, but none were perfect because we’re all human and make mistakes.

So, please, when thinking of your childhood, it’s up to you to learn from that when you become a parent and do your best for your children, but you need to accept that you’ll make mistakes and your children will grow up and complain about some aspect of their childhood.

We all need to realise that the ‘perfect family’ doesn’t exist nor does the ‘perfect childhood’ what I believe that we need to do is be the best we can be, treat others with respect and kindness, stand up for injustices, be true to ourselves and hopefully, that will have a ripple effect around each of us.