I’ve been thinking about being a parent a lot lately. It’s been a bit of a rough season - nothing that, as parents, we’re not used to. Our daughter is 8 and we seem to be at the precipice of a new developmental stage. Which is always interesting. Well, a question about being a parent that I often have to stop and ask myself is this…
Jonas, you've described perfectly a truth about my life: Because my father was so over-protective of me (even into adulthood), a psychologist once literally told me that I needed to tell my father that he "was not God in my life"... which I proceeded to do (in a kindly and respectful manner of course) -- and it practically killed him, as I was his favorite of the three of us children. (The psychologist later told me that he meant for me to only say it to myself... not out loud to my father (Ha! Not so expressed!)
As a result of my father's over-protectiveness, I gave extreme latitude to the natural independent nature of my own children... the same extremely independent nature with which I was born but had curtailed by a well-meaning loving father! So... Amen to what you are wisely expressing here.
Profound. Should be in a parenting publication
Jonas, you've described perfectly a truth about my life: Because my father was so over-protective of me (even into adulthood), a psychologist once literally told me that I needed to tell my father that he "was not God in my life"... which I proceeded to do (in a kindly and respectful manner of course) -- and it practically killed him, as I was his favorite of the three of us children. (The psychologist later told me that he meant for me to only say it to myself... not out loud to my father (Ha! Not so expressed!)
As a result of my father's over-protectiveness, I gave extreme latitude to the natural independent nature of my own children... the same extremely independent nature with which I was born but had curtailed by a well-meaning loving father! So... Amen to what you are wisely expressing here.
"Go ahead and cross out my name and put yours on it if it helps." Just did.