Be Thankful for Your Parents 541.5
On this Thanksgiving Day, I’d like to remind children of all ages to think about your parents and all the things you could feel thankful for. Even if you don’t have a perfect home life or ideal parents, it’s a good day to appreciate those who need affirmation, approval, and encouragement as much as you did when you were a child.
It’s natural to criticize your parents and be preoccupied with your own life, but this doesn’t free you from the basic responsibility to be courteous, kind, empathetic, respectful, and grateful.
Children, especially teens and young adults, often become so self-absorbed with their own lives that they really believe they’re too busy or too poor to be attentive to their parents’ emotional needs. They don’t make thoughtful phone calls or get even symbolic birthday, anniversary, or holiday gifts (with parents, it really is the thought that counts). Because their parents forgive them, they think what they did or didn’t do is okay. Well, it isn’t.
You have an enormous power to cause happiness or hurt. Sharing good news, even asking for advice, can give your mom or dad great pleasure and pride. If, however, you ignore, demean, or shut out your parents due to thoughtlessness or malice, you can cause enduring distress, even misery.
Good parents -- the ones who are easiest to hurt -- change their lives in thousands of ways for their children. They don’t do it for gratitude, but they deserve thankfulness. In a moment of despair, King Lear utters an age-old truth: "How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Comments
Happy Thanksgiving to all at Character Counts!.
With regard to gratitude for parents, I absolutely agree that for the vast majority of children, gratitude for their parents of course called for. I think that for the majority of those, they are grateful for their parents.
However, I do think about those children who have been the victim of abuse of one sort or another at the hands of a parent or both parents. I'm sure that for those children, gratitude hardly comes to mind.
I'm not talking about children whose parents, though they have made mistakes, are doing their best, or have the odd lapse of stupidity for which the children bear the brunt, but malicious hurtful parents, or selfish parents who use their children for personal gain. These miserable individuals are to be pitied, but not nearly as much as the their victims.
However, is bitterness and hatred a viable replacement in these situations? I would say no. Perhaps such children should look around them, for the "parent figure" who has taken up the responsibility of care and be grateful for them. Maybe it is a children's home director or a foster parent, an uncle, aunt, or older sibling.
These children, where become aware of them, need to be loved and comforted so that they can move beyond the difficult times of their childhood.
Posted by: John Fairlamb | November 21, 2007 11:56 PM
I will be sharing your 'be thankful for your parents' essay with my 14 and 16 year-olds. My wife and I have tried to instill exactly what you have written in your essay for sometime with our teenagers. It will nice to see the same comments coming from someone else. Always enjoy reading your work. I recently had the opportunity to take your class ethics for P.O.’s. It was an extra treat to have you there and teach the first part of the class. Keep up the great work
Posted by: Jerry | November 22, 2007 9:04 PM
Don't Worry, Be Happy! =)
Posted by: Bill | February 29, 2008 2:28 AM