You Cannot Control How Your Children Remember You
Children have long memories
If there's one mantra I would like every parent in the world to repeat to themselves every day, I would choose "Our children don't belong to us."
They are not our trophies of adulthood. They are not mini-mes in which we can pour our failed dreams. They are not weapons of mass destruction against our ex. They are not our property.
We serve one of the most critical roles in their lives; that part is true.
Thanks to us, for better and sometimes for worse, they will build their early vision of the world. What is right, what is wrong, what is safe, who am I, where do I belong? All of this is filtered through their experiences with us.
And then, little by little, they start to find their own way. It begins with little steps that soon morph into a massive transformation that makes us wonder where our little child went.
Eventually, adulthood will come, and with it, the last freedom spurt. They have always had their own lives, but it won't be until now that we'll acknowledge we cannot keep pretending they are under our control.
Not that some people don't try…
