A friend of mine recently posted something on her Facebook page that made me want to stand up and cheer. I even asked her permission to quote it.
It was: “If you resist seeing your children as a reflection of how you will be judged by others, it will be easier to enjoy them and let them be.”
Read that again slowly…let it soak in.
This is some good wisdom for parents. Because the fact remains that too often we parent out of fear of what others will think. So we say or do things that we believe others will agree with.
Once we stop doing that, we can actually begin to enjoy our children and allow them to be who they are. That’s because we no longer care what others think. This is freeing.
I have been learning this the past few months. And the lessons have come during some very difficult and trying times.
Until my family’s world got turned upside down, it was all about what others would think. It was a message my children were receiving from me because I would often say things like, “What would people at church think?” “What would my friends think?” “What would people in our family think?”
Who cares…that is the point I needed to reach. Who cares what they think. Their judgment shouldn’t be what causes me to either enjoy my children or not. Their judgment shouldn’t stand in the way of my children being who they are, yes, even if they go through some rocky moments.
This isn’t an easy concept to adopt, I will tell you. It might be a little easier when things are sailing along smoothly. But throw in some trials and it becomes much more difficult to walk out.
All I can tell you is this; it is a freeing thing to live by. And not only for you, but for your children as well.
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Photo by antigone78 in Flickr