There’s something about how the generations work which fascinates me. I think each set of parents has some ideas that transcend what was given to them. They can see where their own parents were deficient and provide what they believe their own children need that they didn’t get. In turn they (we) will get it wrong of course because their own children will know better than them.
So maybe one day we’ll get it right.
My parents’ generation believed passionately in the power of education. If your child got a good education they could ‘get on in life’. That’s what happened when you came from the ‘have nots’. When I got to Oxford University on a scholarship I met up with the children of the ‘haves’. Understandably they’d come from a different place and had a different approach. I felt intimidated. I suspect they did too but were better at not showing it.
But the same thing applies. We all try to give the world what we feel our parents didn’t give us.
I tried to give my children love and appreciation. Not that my own parents weren’t loving, but it wasn’t their principle focus. They wanted us to get on in life. Well every parent wants that for their children. In hindsight I think my parents were much more tolerant than I realised at the time.
It’d be interesting to know where my children think I went wrong. We all do the best we can as parents, and we all don’t do it perfectly.
Well our kids’ll sort it out… maybe.
