The relationship then stopped being one of a parent then? Asking for a friend? Depends. I have two children, both of whom I am working on building such a relationship what we can collaborate together, and they can become more independent in the process. That's the value I see, both in parent/child relationship, as well as creator/created relationship People think parenting is an arduous process, constantly put upon, but I see it as an opportunity for growth at every turn.
It is a different relationship. I have to look at them as adults and as people very capable of making their own decisions.
Indeed, yes. Because that's how it starts. It starts out as a challenge. While I love my kids, it is challenging to feel demanded upon, at times whined at, by your children. But, and here's the magic of parenting-it doesn't stay that way. It grows, and evolves, and changes in dynamic as their abilities increase, and develop. It's such a picture of the Divine to me, the capacity for unrelenting, even irritating, love, despite a child's at times whiny or neediness. Parenting is like what Bill initially described, but its so much more. That's the point-to not see people in their neediness, but in their capability. Yes, yes. Interesting. I guess I feel that way about God too.
My wife and I decided pretty early on that we weren't going to be indoctrinating parents. We have our values that we obviously passed along to our children, but we weren't going to force them down any particular path. We wanted them to be themselves, as much as possible.
You've been here long enough to know this kind of personal attack is completely unacceptable. You could have made your point without resorting to the personal insults and name calling. In light of your clean record up to this point, I'm just giving you an informal warning for this, in addition to a 24-hour thread reply ban. However, any further posts like this will result in a formal infraction. Comments to PM.
Hopefully you're not good in the "the knives aren't evenly sharpened" sense and not the "oops, I cut myself by accident again" sense.
Had a boss that liked to ask his staff, "Why did you make that mistake?" There's no way to respond to this. Whatever you say, he'd just go, "That's just an excuse." I'm glad to no longer have this person for a boss.
I am grateful for all my bosses who have been willing to teach me through my mistakes (and I've made a shit ton, including recently).
I have had bosses ask me that, and I always reply, "Well, apparently, I'm just an idiot." Then the boss stammers and gets flustered and says, "Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Just don't do that again." But, when I was the manager and an employee used that same line on ME, to elicit sympathy, I smiled at them and said, "Acknowledging that is the first step."
I love how we have to keep reedifying what makes humans different from other animals, because every time we come up with something we think only we do, someone stumbles across an animal doing it.