{"id":20453,"date":"2026-03-11T09:24:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/when-parenting-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:10:08","slug":"when-parenting-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/friends-and-family\/parenting\/teenagers\/when-parenting-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates\/","title":{"rendered":"When Parenting Is Like a Box of Chocolates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>With this past Monday being \u201cNational Chocolate \u00c9clair Day\u201d and with Friday being \u201cNational Chocolate Pudding Day,\u201d I thought it only fitting to share an excerpt from my latest book about parenting, <\/em>When Chocolate Isn\u2019t Enough: An Inspirational Survival Guide for Mothers<em> (Worthy Inspired). Hope you enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>In the opening scenes of the movie, <em>Forrest Gump<\/em>, Tom Hanks, who plays Forrest, is sitting on a bench with a box of chocolates on his lap. Soon, a woman sits down on the other side of the bench.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHello. My name\u2019s Forrest. Forrest Gump\u2026You want a chocolate?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The woman never even looks up from her magazine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mama always said, \u2018Life was like a box of chocolates,\u2019\u201d he continues, while chewing a piece of chocolate. \u201cYou never know what you\u2019re gonna get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of truth in that bit of dialogue.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"456\" class=\" alignright size-full wp-image-43107\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/blog_michellebook_300.jpg\" style=\"width: 300px;height: 456px;margin-left: 15px;margin-right: 15px;float: right\" \/>I also think that parenting is a lot like a box of chocolates. Some days you get your favorite caramel nut, milk chocolate covered piece, and other days you bite into the nasty orange cream filled piece! Not every day can be a caramel nut, milk chocolate kind of day. Nah, you have to have a few orange cream filled days to make you appreciate the really good ones.<\/p>\n<p>I remember one of those \u201corange cream filled days\u201d very well. I dropped off Ally, who was in middle school at the time, at our cousin\u2019s shop to get her hair trimmed and highlighted while I went to my business luncheon. At the conclusion of my meeting, I noticed that my husband had called several times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything OK, babe?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUhh\u2026what was Ally supposed to get done to her hair?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrimmed and highlighted, why?\u201d I asked, nervously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, something must\u2019ve gone drastically wrong then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I sped home, and when I walked into Ally\u2019s room, I saw it. Her once long hair was cut in short layers on top, sticking up sort of like a Punk Rock rooster. The back remained long but thinned out somehow, reminiscent of a grown out mullet. I just couldn\u2019t figure out what had happened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid your hair break off in the foils?\u201d I asked<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d Ally said. \u201cI like it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I left her room and called our cousin, who is an amazing stylist, to find out what had happened. I knew there had to be an explanation for this horrendous hairdo.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out, my little Barbie doll daughter had decided she didn\u2019t want to look like a Barbie anymore and printed a picture off the Internet, took it to our cousin without me knowing, and said, \u201cThis is how I want my hair.\u201d He, of course, thought I had approved.<\/p>\n<p>Ally was happy; I was not.<\/p>\n<p>I had to ground Ally for lying and being sneaky, although I felt like her horrible hair was punishment enough. Later that night, as I was telling the girls goodnight, I asked Ally: \u201cHoney, why did you want to do that to your hair?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes and said, \u201cI just wanted to stand out, Mom. I just wanted to feel special like I did in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I hadn\u2019t even considered that, but all at once I understood. We had moved the girls from Texas back to Indiana during their middle school years, making them leave their cheer squads, their best friends, and their school\u2014a school where they were popular and knew everyone. Ally wasn\u2019t adjusting as well as I\u2019d hoped. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/guideposts.org\/blog\/faith-and-finding-the-right-path\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><i>READ MORE: FAITH AND FINDING THE RIGHT PATH<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I hugged her and told her I understood. We prayed together, and I asked God to heal her heart and send her a best friend.<\/p>\n<p>Not long after, a pretty little girl with big brown eyes and the same crazy haircut showed up at our house. Her name was Jill, Ally\u2019s new best friend. God had answered our prayers.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll answer your prayers, too.<\/p>\n<p>So, if you\u2019re having a run of orange cream filled pieces, hang on! A caramel nut, milk chocolate piece is on its way.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><em>Excerpt from <\/em><span style=\"line-height: 18.1818180084229px\">When Chocolate Isn\u2019t Enough: An Inspirational Survival Guide for Mothers <em>by Michelle Medlock Adams<\/em><\/span><em style=\"line-height: 18.1818180084229px\"><em> <\/em>(Worthy Inspired, March 2015).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With this past Monday being \u201cNational Chocolate \u00c9clair Day\u201d and with Friday being \u201cNational Chocolate Pudding Day,\u201d I thought it only fitting to share an excerpt from my latest book about parenting, When Chocolate Isn\u2019t Enough: An Inspirational Survival Guide for Mothers (Worthy Inspired). Hope you enjoy! In the opening scenes of the movie, Forrest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":28895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[361],"tags":[51,14],"ppma_author":[487],"class_list":["post-20453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teenagers","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-spiritual-growth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When Parenting Is Like a Box of Chocolates - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Parenting Is Like a Box of Chocolates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With this past Monday being \u201cNational Chocolate \u00c9clair Day\u201d and with Friday being \u201cNational Chocolate Pudding Day,\u201d I thought it only fitting to share an excerpt from my latest book about parenting, When Chocolate Isn\u2019t Enough: An Inspirational Survival Guide for Mothers (Worthy Inspired). 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