Last week, Mom and Richard took the kids out for the afternoon. I cleaned the kitchen and then sat down to watch Sophie's Choice. I hadn't seen it before, and while I knew the gist of the movie, actually watching it? It was....powerful. Heartbreaking. Terribly, terribly sad. Meryl Streep was amazing.
How could anyone survive making a choice like that? Worse, how many people had to? I can't bear to think about it.
It certainly put things in a clearer perspective.
I also started thinking about choices. We make so many of them every day...what to wear, where to go, what to eat, what we say, how we act and react...
I want the kids to grow up with the ability to make good choices. One of the hardest things about letting the kids make their own choices is respecting their right to make choices I wouldn't. And then I think about how imperfect I am, and how I learned way more from my mistakes than I ever did by blindly following someone elses choice direction (even when they were right).
Why is this so hard to do as a parent? Or maybe it's just hard for me...
But I am so utterly, humbly grateful that I live in America where I have the freedom to make choices (and mistakes), and that I will never have to face a choice like Sophie did.
2 comments:
Great post :-)
I've never seen that movie, but I think I may watch it today...I'll grab the kleenex first, though!
And, where I felt my parents made a few mistakes is that they weren't as open-minded as they should have been. Things are different now, but they had a hard time realizing that I was an individual that, maybe, didn't see things exactly the way they did.
I swear, on everything, (and Gary and I talk about it all the time), that we'll appreciate Jake for who he is, try to figure out why he came to one conclusion, instead of another, and really learn him. Of course, we'll expect him to have certain values, and stuff like that, but his thoughts will always be his own. He deserves that :-)
I agree completely. I want to guide the kids, not break them or make them carbon copies of R and I. Life is hard enough without turning into your parents...hahahahaaa!
Post a Comment