Being nine months pregnant tends to make most women wax nostalgic about their childhood, reflect on the way their parents parented, and consider who they want their child to be someday. So as I sit here in the final weeks of my pregnancy with my first child, I'm being bombarded by a loud inner voice yelling all the things that a brain can come up with to make a new mom as insecure as possible.

"What if you mess him up?"

"Are you actually capable of homeschooling?"

"How firm are your beliefs?"

"Were your parents right?"

I've been given a very unique opportunity in this life. Unlike most people in their early twenties I actually believe that my parents did an incredible job raising me. Teenage me would be pissed that I would ever willingly put that in writing, but as it turns out…they were right about pretty much everything. In adulthood I've chosen to participate in the same religion I was raised in, I agree with and proudly support a similar political philosophy, and I plan on educating my children in a nearly identical way. In short, I hope that someday my son will be writing somewhere and pen the words: "I'm so lucky my grandparents raised my mom the way they did." When I say things like this to my peers they're dumbfounded. Their response always echoes the same line of thinking: "Well I modeled my life in the complete opposite of my upbringing."

So that begs the question, are my parents just insanely incredible and completely unique? Or did they key in on something early in their parenting journey that most people never learn:

Good ideas don't require force. 

Being 'Different' Isn't Always Terrible