Is parenting really tough? If you ask me, I’d say it is one of the toughest assignments in the world. It may be untrue for some but most people will agree that they often encounter those moments which leave them scratch their head and curse the situation they lead themselves into. But all the difficulties and challenges are dwarfed by the limitless happiness and blessings children bring in to their parents' lives. Yet we still want to tackle all the awkward and difficult times in a better way. Sometimes parents don’t have sufficient know-how to deal with a particular situation. Parents aren’t any God, so they can’t be expected to be omniscient. But children always take them into new territories. So parents have a moral obligation towards responsible parenting.
Life itself is tough and to top it, parenting is a bigger responsibility. Reminds me of a single mother’s post here who is struggling to make her ends meet along with the responsibility of parenting her three children. How much tougher it can get!
Responsible Parenting:
Parenting is the most important task impacting human civilization. Parenting plays the key role in giving direction to our culture and progress of humanity. In fact, it is the creator of the whole social fabric. So parents have a huge social responsibility over their shoulders. But choosing the right from the wrong is not always easy as nothing is written in black and white. It all depends on the parents’ own personal ideologies, moral standards and understanding of the achievable goals. So parents have the responsibility to acquire sufficient knowledge about the rights & the wrongs, about the larger interest of the society and our ecology, about life’s supreme goal and the path leading towards it. They should not only know all these but should be able to impart this knowledge to their offspring in the most nonchalant manner.
Sometimes I’m shocked to read posts like this where parents feel amused to teach lessons in murdering someone! What can you expect from children who grow up deriving fun from such cruel experiences! But as I said, it all depends on parents’ own learnings & ideologies. We all have some limitations.
Love and Affection vs. Indulgence & Over-Leniency
What is love and how much of love & concern is enough? Some parents will always yield to the whims of their children and won’t take any harsh measures to stop their tendency to always have their own way fully knowing that it’s not good in the long run. Always giving in to all the unreasonable demands of a child is a sure-shot way to spoil her. But many think that this is a way to express their affection towards their children. True love is never short-sighted. It foresees the appropriateness of present actions to put them on the path of righteousness in the long run. Short-term pleasures needs to be sacrificed in favour of long-term happiness, not the vice-versa. Similarly, when it’s time for making tough decisions & hard choices, parents should have courage to do just that. Who have the courage to throw a new-born into the ocean to teach her to swim? Go, ask a penguin!
Similarly there are issues related to over-parenting or helicopter parenting. Several times parenting reduces children to a mere slave of their own wishes & dreams. Parenting should be able to provide reasonable freedom to every individual and should not bind them to their own thinking and philosophies. Each individual should have freedom to develop his / her own. Love should liberate all, not just YOU!
Personal Progress vs. Responsibility of Parenting
With the rise in dual-income couples in modern times, parents have far less time for their children than ever. Most young parents today are caught up between devoting their time to achieve their own personal goals and sharing it with their children even during their most precious growing up phase. Parents work hard to achieve higher materialistic goals thinking that their children will enjoy a happier life in luxury of higher material comforts, all the while sacrificing that invaluable time which could have imparted an invaluable personality to their children for which this world would have always remained indebted.
Successful Parenting
The definition for “success” is quite subjective. Everyone defines it according to his / her own understanding of life. But it is the responsibility of parents to provide their children with fair chances to survive, experience and understand this life and the world we live in to let him/her discover his/her own gifts and to let them explore & use them to their best. When grown-up, a person’s personality should bloom to its fullest to fill the whole environment with his/her aroma.
We should first strive to develop our own personalities to make parenting effortless and natural. The more natural are we, the less challenging it becomes. So we shouldn't over-think it. Parenting shouldn't be a nightmare but it should be all fun and bliss.
Sharing is caring
I’m not a parent yet. But I understand the job a bit. Hence I wrote a little about it. I know it’s not even a drop in the ocean. There are innumerable things parents encounter. There are children with special needs, there are parents surviving themselves in difficult circumstances. There are parents who want to adopt a child or who has already adopted a child and facing some legal hassle. Some may be a parent to an adopted rescued animal(s) and may have altogether different set of problems.
Every baby is unique and so are the circumstances she and her parents are in. So all need a different solution, all are trying their best they can on their own. But if there was a community where you could find parents who had successfully coped with similar situation or are going through almost the same scenario as you, then certainly it helps in sharing with each other. I’m glad that such an effort is underway here on Steemit with Steemparents in the making.
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This is a great news for all parents and to-be parents. A tightly knit, warm and supportive community on the steemit is in the making. Do join it! Contribute to it as much as you can. Take all the advantages it offers and help us all in building a better world for tomorrow.
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This is a brand new community under development. They are also seeking donations to kickstart their curation effort. So do donate them whatever you can. Even if you can't give any money, there are more ways you can offer to help. Read more here about that. Do use tags #steemparents #steemmom and #steemdad for your parenting related posts and connect with all the wonderful moms & dads around the world. Thank you folks!