Change from the Inside Out
Introduction
As we raise our children, our children raise us. I first heard this statement from a video titled “Sacred Parenting”.
When I first became a mother, I became aware that I now existed for more than myself – another human being is now dependent on me for his life. Little did I know what that really meant. In time, it dawned on me that another human being is now dependent on me for the formation of values which would guide his life.
As Edmund and I grew as parents, we became more and more unsure about ourselves. We realised that we were not good enough! We are not honest enough (“Why do you tell the ‘Karang Guni’ man that we have nothing to sell? I thought we have lots of newspapers?”), we are not humble enough and we practice double standards (“Mum, why is YOUR table in a mess?”).
As our children grew, and the parenting challenges increase, we had to admit to ourselves that we must become better people.
We cannot expect our child to be a better person than we are – we must first become that person whom we want them to be – or at least be seen as doing our best to get there. We have to be authentic, and we must change from the inside out.
Our children are raising us, and this column contains stories of the lessons which our children are teaching us, and how we are becoming better people, because of them.
