When I hear that phrase from a parent, my heart always breaks a little for them. The guilt and regret can be heavy, when it comes to making decisions for our kids.
Are we doing the right thing? I've wrestled with this question many, many times as a parent. Just as I have reassured clients and have reminded myself, we are always doing the best we can with the knowledge we have, right now. If we change our minds down the road, that doesn't negate the choices we made or mean we are bad parents. It just means we learned new information and made a decision based on it and our values.
Even when a decision resulted in an unpleasant outcome for our child (for example, a medical choice we made for one of our kids resulted in a few years of skin issues), beating ourselves up over it isn't going to change the outcome. You are human, I am human, we are going to have emotions over it! And, we move forward with renewed purpose of what decisions we will make down the road.
Regret keeps us living in the past. Worry keeps us living in the future. Being free of both allows you to live in the present.
In case you haven't heard it lately, you are doing a GREAT job. Even if you aren't a parent, and you are a human being trying to make the best decisions for yourself, life can be hard and can drag you down. You are still doing a great job!
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