Mom and Dad didn't know
Their mistakes scarred me forever
They never let love show
Or taught me how to be secure
So unsure
Half way to middle age

It has gone by too fast
Will the next half pass so quickly?
Can I let go of the past
And the need to write it on this page?
Feeling lost
Half way to middle age

Stress ever increases
Confusion reaching everywhere
Tearing me to pieces
So many that I cannot bear
To face facts
Half way to middle age

Now I'm twenty years old
And my cards are on the table
I wonder if I should fold
'Cos I feel I am unable
To face life
Half way to middle age

03/25/1983

Author's Note: Why do parents do things that are counter productive to their children’s development? I think one reason is that they are over protective of their children. Parents don’t allow them to do anything independently and wind up battling against them instead of helping them. How many times have you heard a child say the phrase, “all by myself”? Instead of accomplishing things and being happy about it, there is a desperate struggle just to do something on their own. That struggle becomes the way they believe it must be to get what they want and continue using these battle tactics into adulthood. Often times, children feel they must secretly do whatever they are determined to do, or they will be stopped before they can finish. Not only do parents fail to teach their children how to accomplish things in life, they are taught to hide their work so they won’t be scolded for taking initiative that would otherwise lend itself to creating new things that young imaginations should be free to think of and form into reality. Parents do not want to be told how to raise their children and I am not suggesting that is what needs to be done. But they must provide their children with the tools to prosper when they venture out on their own. There are some who spend more time holding their children back and seem to want them to be failures. Fortunately this is not the case with most parents. Most want their children to succeed, if not exceed their own accomplishments. Some even push too hard, causing stresses just as damaging as holding them back, as they can never live up to the expectations their parents set for them. Nature has provided the basics and allowed humans to become prolific reproducers. But being fruitful and multiplying does not mean we are automatically good parents. The choices we are provided and the decisions we make are based on what we learn in childhood. If the foundation is filled with doubt and a trail of discipline from parents who were not equipped to teach their children fully, all too often the outcome later in life will result in failure. Hesitation will litter the fields of invention with unfinished brilliance.

Posted on 10/08/2005
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