When my first child was born, I felt a great responsibility as a parent to raise her right and teach her about the world. Two years later, my responsibility to raise good children and teach them well, doubled, with the arrival of my son.
Fast track 17 years later, and what I realized is that my children have raised good parents and taught my wife and I well. You see, what really happened was that most of the raising and teaching was done by my children instead.
By the time my kids arrived in this world, they already had their personalities. No matter how much we tried, we could not change the fundamentals of their characters.
My daughter is head strong, confident and smart. My son is happy go lucky, easy going and can read people’s emotions extremely well. No matter how much I wanted to change parts of their character, for example, trying to teach my daughter to be less head strong and listen to other opinions, and my son to be more aggressive, I would end up having to explain what was wrong with being ambitious and focused and what was wrong with being at peace with oneself.
My son was born in the year of the Pig (or Boar) and somehow has some of the characteristics of the pig such as he loves to sleep in, loves to eat and is happy with the world at large. He has taught me how to appreciate the smaller things in life and the importance of taking it easy.
My daughter was born in the year of the Rooster and she too demonstrates some of the Rooster characteristics such as waking up early and working hard. She teaches me to be on the ball and organized as she does not mind reminding me if I have forgotten to do or bring something.
When I looked back at my own experience with my parents, I finally understood why my children are my teachers…really, how many kids actually listen to their parents?
I didn’t and so now my kids don’t listen to me as well…
