Reference: Saz
did have a girl, but she didn't like pink fluffy things?
like my girl!
She's never been pink, fluffy, graceful or demure! But I wouldn't change her for the world.
And that's probably the distinction... for what I hope is the vast majority of parents, their child is so much more than they ever thought to wish for. I cannot comprehend looking at one of my children & wishing they were a different child. I often look at them and wish their behaviour could be different... as you do, but not that they could be replaced with another person.
Obviously there must a minority that see kids as something for themselves... they are setting themselves up for nothing but disappointment really.
My mil was a bit like this... though the circumstances were perhaps a little more understandable. My hubby is the eldest of his siblings, but he did have a sister who was a year older than him, who died when she was 18 months old. His mum then had his 3 brothers, and then finally another daughter.
All 4 boys went to boarding school, but my sister in law wasn't allowed to cos MIL wanted her at home with her.
She's in her twenties now, and lives the other side of the US to my MIL and refuses to have any contact with her. She says nothing she ever did was good enough for the MIL.