With Mother’s Day rapidly approaching, I thought a reminder on appreciating our parents might be appropriate. If you’ve been too busy to give much thought to your parents lately, then know that I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I never try to do that. But, I know that busy people need reminders from time to time, so I thought I’d remind us all, myself included, about appreciating our parents.
When Vickie and I were adopting our oldest granddaughter, we hired a retired judge to be our lawyer. During our introductory talks with him, I came to understand how he had become a judge: he was a wise man. In talking about parenting, the subject of our own parents came up, and he relayed to us that he had lost both parents and his brother within a two-year span. He noted that, when you lose your parents, you lose the only people who have unconditionally loved you.
Something to think about, isn’t it?
If you have lost both parents, there is no doubt you can vouch for the wisdom of this statement. For those of us who still have one or more parents, this is certainly something for us to reflect on.
If you grew up with loving and responsible parents as I did, it’s all too easy to take them for granted. My girlfriend, however, works for Child Protective Services and has told me stories about children who suffer at the hands of neglectful and/or abusive parents. Whenever I’m tempted to gripe about the little things my parents did wrong, I think about the fact that I had a safe, stable, and loving environment in which to grow up. It is impossible to overstate the value of what my parents provided me.
Excellent point Bill. So many of us who are fortunate to have been blessed with wonderful parents forget that there are abusive parents. Such a tragedy. Almost incomprehensible.