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The Unfinish-able Project Called Parenting
Some days, I would like to be done with it, this parenting thing. Hang up my coat, close the dossier, mark it ‘done’ — and then I think of grandkids, and go all soft.
In a rare moment, with only the two of us in the lift, my late mother sighed and said, “it’s tough”. In my usual flourish, with what I relished as a witty reply, I shot back, “ya, cannot retire!”. This time though, my mom did not respond with her usual appreciation of my silly comebacks.
This memory has come back to me many times, especially since I became a mother myself.
We never ever unmoor ourselves from what has gone on before us. Legacy is the life lived, spent or squandered that continues to reverberate in the souls of next generations.
So when I am frustrated with my children, I would think back on how I must have frustrated my own parents, something I cannot undo now. But the knowledge never fails to tenderise me afresh. This is the gift of generations, that helps us endure and grow.
This is a fact that is felt: children take their parents for granted. Simply due to the reality that the generations will always live in different worlds, our appreciation and empathy for each other is always a challenge.