OK, I admit it. I love the hit comedy Modern Family. The storylines are hilarious, the characters are endearingly flawed, and the themes – surprisingly – really make me think. The clip below, from episode 2 of the current season, epitomizes everything I love about this show (more after the video).

Beyond the laugh out loud quality of the lines and the way the actors deliver them, there are some key points that I’ve been pondering about this interaction.

First, when my girls get to be dating age (around, oh, 30ish?), I’m going to struggle with these same issues. Protecting them and offering guidance on how to evaluate guys to date, keeping my own judgments and biases to myself, and knowing that I wasn’t always the perfect kid growing up. Granted, I wasn’t all that bad (no, really). D&D nights with some buddies was the wildest I got in high school. The first couple years of college, on the other hand…those are stories I’m not quite ready to share on the Internet.

Needless to say, while I wish my kids wouldn’t repeat my mistakes, I also realize that mistake-making is part of life. And, while I hope I’m able to positive influence their values and life choices, I can’t expect to control them like robots. They will make mistakes and I will love them through them.