As parents, we are the first teachers of our children. They look at us and follow what we do. Children have been called the greatest imitators because they constantly try to imitate their parents–in good things, and not so good things.
How many times have you heard your own words come from the mouth of your child, or seen him or her try to do what you do, exactly the way you do it?
Children are blank canvases. As parents, we provide the paint for the picture they will create of themselves and the world around them. Even when they are adults, we can still see ourselves in them, maybe even more so than when they were young. For parents, teaching children is an awesome, tiring, task that requires overloads of patience and perseverance.
But our children are not ‘us,’ and they will never be us. We cannot live our lives through them, or expect them to live the dreams we had for ourselves. We can only love them, do our best to bring out ‘their best,’ and help them find and begin their own dreams.
In the process of teaching our children, we are learning from them, too. There’s nothing more innocent than a child, more loving, or more forgiving. These are traits for us to imitate.
Children have an innate excitement about the world, and living in it. Everything is new to a child. Everything is something to touch, smell, eat, or even color on. We often forget our own excitement and curiosity until we have children who show it to us again.
In the classroom of the family, there is learning on both sides. There are the older teachers (US) and the younger teachers (THEM). Parents and Children who love each other–despite their struggles and misunderstandings—are key to a grounded family, and key to our society as a whole—-because the greatest lesson is this: if we could love others as much as we love our children, and as much as they love us, our world would be close to a utopia.
Translating a World on the Edge 