Accepting our kids as-is can be overwhelming and frustrating. Maybe you have this vision of who you want your child to be. For us as parents, we have to surrender our “idea” of who our kids should be so that we can respond to them the way they need us to. The first step to surrendering our expectations is acceptance. Accepting our kids for who they are requires a change in our hearts and minds. We need to lay down our expectations and just be with our kids. When we truly accept them, it is then that we learn their strengths and weaknesses. We stop looking at them through a microscope and allow them to be who they really are. Our kids will do amazing things. We just have to step aside and let them be who they are meant to be.