How does caring for others enrich my life?

Dear, dear Mica. I think you are being too hard on yourself. All parents make mistakes. None of us know how to be perfect. The job comes without instructions and we do the best figuring things out as we go. We love them so much. It’s not lack of motivation, here. Child psychologists don’t even agree on ways of parenting. I remember when my son was about fourteen he would yell at me that I made him angry. I’d tell him if I could make him angry, I could also make him not-angry and I would certainly try, but I didn’t have that power. I sometimes wonder too if I played a part in my daughter’s low self esteem. But if I had that power, wouldn’t I also have had the power to give her better self esteem? I would try to while she lived here, but in trying I realized I could not. I could only try, and in my own imperfect way. At the end of the day, our children are their own persons. They make choices as they grow as to how they will interpret things, what they will hang on to, and what they will forget or discount. Each child, just as we did when we were children, reacts differently, uniquely. Might we have done better? Yes, but how? And, aren’t we human, too? We have to let it go, Mica. There is just today.

You are showing up, Mica. That’s a very important part of feeling loved. ❤