Parenting

What is the purpose of parenting? It is to protect and prepare our children for the realities to thrive and survive in the world that they live in. But, we can not raise them according to our current society, we need to raise them to be successful in the society that they will be living in. This world is changing at exponential rates. I am currently in my mid 20's I remember saying all the time, "hey, can you hurry up with the computer? I need to use the phone". Why did I say that? Because the phone that was mounted on the kitchen wall was plugged into the phone jack that the internet used for dial up. Now, we have skinny devices that fit in our pockets that will allow us to call anywhere (without long distance prices) while searching the internet without any wires at all. My point is that things change so fast. We need to prepare them for the future they will be jumping into.

When I think about parenting, I think of a couple raising their children together. But, I learned recently that this form of parenting hasn't always been the case. There have been times in history when children were not raised by parents. For example, there were places during WWII that didn't do this. They would send their children to homes where they were raised as a large group rather than individuals.  What kind of effect did this have on those that were raised there?

Who is impacted by parenting; the children, or the parents? I would argue that all parties involved are impacted. I would even go so far as to say that extended family can be impacted.  When you are raising children, it makes you selfless, you learn how to be more intentional in your thinking and energy and time allocation.

Have you ever found that you are going along doing something and found that you are doing it the same way your parents did? I have found this to be true for myself, especially lately. Sometimes I say something and have to stop because I realized that those words just came out of my mouth and not my mothers. Or, I will explain something to a friend and realize that I just used the same voice inflections that my father does.  My point is that we as children are affected by the way that our parents did things and they are constantly learning and growing, shaping who they are until their adulthood. Once we reach 35 years old, we are pretty much set in our own ways (unless something dramatic happens in our lives). We will simply become more of who we already are.

We need to have a genuine care for those we are raising and those who are in our lives. There is a theory about the 6 basic human needs. Are we meeting these needs?