{"id":20453,"date":"2026-03-11T09:24:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/when-parenting-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:44:54","slug":"when-parenting-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guideposts.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>In the opening scenes of the movie <em>Forrest Gump<\/em>, Tom Hanks, who plays Forrest, is sitting on a bench with a <a href=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/prayer\/true-stories-of-answered-prayer\/the-message-in-a-box-of-chocolates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">box of chocolates<\/a> 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 loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright size-full wp-image-43107\" style=\"width: 300px; height: 456px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/blog_michellebook_300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"456\" \/>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/positive-living\/friends-and-family\/6-best-friends-and-family-stories\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">best friends<\/a>, 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>I hugged her and told her I understood. We prayed together, and I asked God to <a href=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/prayer\/true-stories-of-answered-prayer\/the-power-of-a-mother-s-prayer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">heal her heart<\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/prayer\/true-stories-of-answered-prayer\/unexpected-blessings-answered-prayers-for-loved-ones\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">answered our prayers<\/a>.<\/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><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;\"> (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":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"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 v27.4 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - 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=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/positive-living\/friends-and-family\/parenting\/teenagers\/when-parenting-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates\/\" \/>\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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