"We all falter...but it doesn't matter."

You expect your parents to be mighty and infallible. They've been entrusted with all that you are and ever will be, and you NEED them not to fail.

But they fail anyhow, because they're only human. Inevitably, they do. Even the best parents with the best intentions, at one time or another, will err in their judgement and you will be wounded as a result. They'll be too harsh, or too lenient. Smothering, or inattentive. Too trusting, or too suspiscious. Whatever the circumstances, there comes a time in every child's life when they suffer because their parents made a wrong decision.

As a daughter, it was so hard to bear scars that could have been prevented had my mother only done something differently. It was a grudge I carried for years. I thought that the hardest part of growing up was forgiving your parents for all the ways they failed you.

No. The hardest part comes much later, when you have children of your own, and despite your best efforts, you fail them. The hardest part is forgiving yourself.

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise” - Alden Nowlan