Nervous twitch

Of all the aspirations I may hold for whatever we're doing in our parenting of Abigail, there's one flaw that I'd like her to be free from: Nervousness.

Anyone who's spent time with me - long or short, probably picks up my awkwardness. In my writing, I'm free, but in person, at social gatherings and situations, I'm not so. Whether I manage to pull it off and not let it show is one thing, but I love the idea of Abigail not ever having the nervous energy I carry when around other people. It disrupts chances of just enjoying myself, because of such feelings of self-consciousness. Although I am not completely useless, I have great friends and think very much of them all, but I do imagine how wonderful it would be to just be able to be yourself - in most situations rather than only certain ones.

Having children is a responsibility that cannot really be matched by any other type of responsibility, and I wouldn't want to put pressure on my children to be any type of person at all. Maybe it is something I won't be able to change, maybe it is in the genes or chemistry? If we can manage it though, the idea of bringing up free, happy, self assured, relaxed children is an important one for me. Everything else should fall into place from there.

Here's hoping.

I'm sure most people have their own flaws, so I wrote this to open up thoughts on what other people's personal hopes for their children are - as well as the usual wonders of what they'll look like, how they'll do in school, careers, relationships etc.