“I wanna be a self-esteemed, kind, confident, generous person and be a role model, not because I’m famous or anything, but because I do something great for mankind. And a mom… if I get married.”
Jaw dropped.
Heart beamed.
What a breath of fresh air! For it came from JC. Darling, ahead of her years, precious, precocious, ferocious, eight year old JC. A fresh air indeed, as I spent a good deal of the day pondering what would become of my children.
You see, last night I read this book “9 Summers 10 Autumns,” chronicling the journey of Iwan, an angkot driver’s son from Batu, Malang to New York City where he work as a director at Nielsen. The story was a real testament of the strength of family, education and determination. I was really affected by the narrative, mainly by the struggles that he and his sisters have to go through just to get education and later to make a living, and how despite all that, he triumphed. To see how far he has come made me realized how short my journey has been.
I feel inadequate.
Frustrated.
I fear for my children.
Will growing up in abundance rob them their determination? Will they become soft? Will their dreams be less lofty? I wonder….
I expressed my fears to a friend, a fellow mom. As it turns out, I am not alone… We all want our kids to dream big, persevere and triumph.
JC’s statement feed my dream as a parent. The challenge is, how can I keep the hunger to dream, to persevere, to triumph alive?
To feed their hunger to dream, our job as parents is to keep exposing them to new exciting things (places, people, topics) , keep challenging them by giving them tasks and goals.
ReplyDeleteBut to persevere and triumph... no other way for them to learn than to let them fall/fail and get them to get back on their own feet BY THEMSELVES (of course, with our love & support)
So I think most parents want the same great things for their kids... but most would not let their kids fall.
That is very true Cis... sometimes it pains us to see that, but it is part of the growing pains they must overcome. Afterall, dealing with failures are also part of dealing with successes.
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