Professional Or Amateur?

When I was aspiring to be a grown up
in the 1970s the adults whose example
it was left unsaid I should emulate
presented themselves as if they were
born professional adults, who had never
had a childhood and never been anything
other than the apex characters
they presented themselves as
to who they brought into the world.

Whoever they brought into the world
could only ever be amateurish, children,
even when they were capable, well formed, individuals.

I remember feeling repelled
by this locked in professional view
of what parenting ought to produce:
a replication of itself from different circumstances.
Where what parents held onto most
 was how amateurish children
would never relive the past
to be anything like them.