I Loved You Enough... to ask where you were going,
with whom,
and what time you would be home.
I Loved You Enough... to insist that you save
your money and buy
a bike for yourself even though we
could afford to buy one for you.
I Loved You Enough... to be silent and let
you discover that your
new best friend was a creep.
I Loved You Enough... to make you take a Milky Way
back to the
drugstore (with a bite out of it)
and tell the clerk,
"I stole this yesterday and
want to pay for it."
I Loved You Enough... to stand over you for
two hours while you cleaned
your room,
a job that would have
taken 15 minutes.
I Loved You Enough... to let you see anger, disappointment
and tears in my eyes.
Children must learn that their
parents aren't perfect.
I Loved You Enough... to let you assume the
responsibility for your actions
even when the penalties
were so harsh they almost
broke my heart.
But most of all,
I Loved You Enough... to say NO
when I knew you
would hate me for it.
Those were the most
difficult battles of all.
I'm glad I won them,
because in the end,
you won, too.
