Be a Better Adult

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A few years ago, I read an article written by a young Taiwanese woman.  As she found her way into adulthood, she had one guiding principle: don't become the kind of adult she disliked as a child.  That stuck with me.  I'm a brand new parent (i.e. inexperienced), and I have no right to judge.  But I'm pretty sure some of the things adults say to children would be hard to hear even when spoken to another adult.  Why do we think it is okay to say these things to developing children?  The worst is when an adult has such negative influence on a child then later blames the child for being horrible.  The damage it causes stretches far beyond childhood.  Can we be aware enough to say "stop" to repeating bad cycles?

I read a book that opened with "I was a great parent until I became one."  I used to give parents the benefit of the doubt because what did I know about parenting.  Like I said, this is still all new to me so maybe I still don't know.  But as one friend said to me: you may have not been a parent before, but you've been a child.  After all, we are just people, and we are really not so different.