Learn how to play the piano.

I wish that my parents had told me that my grades weren’t worth losing sleep over. I developed so many anxieties in high school over academics. Those anxieties lessened at university, but I wouldn’t exactly say that I am rid of them.

I also desperately wish that my father hadn’t pressured me to conform to gender norms. He was far more understanding than most parents about my desire to express myself differently than the norm than most parents might have been, but he still restricted me in subtler ways. I haven’t felt comfortable about coming out to my parents as a result.

I could have been such a different, happier me.

Most of the things I wish my parents had told me or taught me about they were incapable of knowing. Neither of my parents went to college, were any good with money, were particularly bright, or had any real insight into nurturing happiness and success or managing relationships.

In many ways, I have spent my adult life teaching my parents many of the things I had wished they had taught me.

The truth.

I wish they had told me how they met. Now I’ll never know. :-(

That he’s proud of me…

The names of my birth parents.

Religion is not a guaranteed reality.
And that Santa Claus isn’t real. (They still have yet to admit it to me; I don’t think they can.)

The importance of saving for retirement.

I wish my parents would have stopped me from moving to New York as a nineteen year old to get married. They should have spoke up more and told me that living in the South is really a better place to have a nice calm life. Unfortunately I had to go and marry a New Yorker. Even though the marriage has lasted and I have two grown children, I think I would have been happier raising a family in another part of the country.

How to drive.

They pretty much told me what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it. I still managed to screw a few things up but for the most part I listened. I’m incredibly blessed and thankful to have both of them.

We love you and we’ll always be here for you. They never said it and they weren’t.

Don’t trust her. She’s not old enough to trust. You’re not old enough to trust what you think you trust.

Prolly wouldn’t’a listened anyway. That hormone thing you know.

I wish my dad would have told me he wasn’t infallible and that he didn’t know the answers to everything. Still though, love you dad. :D

I wish my parents would said the same thing @muppetish‘s wishes about grades. In reality they do the other way round: keep pushing pressure on my grades. I have developed grade-related anxieties too… no, not anxieties, but phobias! Sometimes I even feel like I’m going to pass out! And they only grow stronger as time passes. My friends think I’m too fragile when it comes to grades, but in reality I just can’t risk disappointing my parents.

I wish they would tell me that every comparison is subtle. They tend to compare me with anyone they can think of: my brother, a good student at my school, my neighbor, their younger selves… about all aspects. It always leaves me feeling useless.

I wish they would tell me they appreciated my strengths. They always drag my faults out the spotlight and lecture about them all day, while they never say a word about what I do right.

I wish they would tell me I was not stupid. That’s the word they use to me whenever I do something wrong. Whenever they do that they look like they’re judging me by just one action.

I wish they would give me a good instruction instead of “just do it right for us”. Sometimes it leaves me very confused and I don’t know what to do.

I wish they would admit that they didn’t know much about the younger generation. They look at what I do, and then use their standard and entitle my action “inappropriate” while many other youngster do the same.

I wish they would tell me it was normal to be different. They say I have to like the things many people do, otherwise my hobbies will render me “abnormal” and “out of tune with everyone”. They don’t seem to know that it will instead turn me into a clone of others.
...
Oh, so many things I wish they would tell me.

But after all, I shouldn’t complain much because everyone has their shortcomings. And I still love my parents though ;)

@Mimishu1995 Even with all their shortcomings, your parents are doing something right. You just moved a few folks here to tears with your writing. It is beautiful. (Sigh)

Well, damn, that was heartbreaking. I think everyone here can agree on one thing, @Mimishu1995: You’re a good kid, a real sweetheart. Take that with you the next time these things get you down. It’s for real.