What Michael Jackson Taught Me about Parenting

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A friend shared this quote from Thomas Merton on his news feed, which I shared on my Facebook page.

Within 48 hours, it had gone from a trickle of views to over 2,500 views (and counting).

There must be something deeply powerful about this quote that speaks to so many.

As a parent, I see this as an exhortation to appreciate and value for my child for their unique qualities and personality, and to restrain myself from making my child into a mini-me.

My default parenting strategy is to pick and choose those elements of my upbringing that have produced the ‘best’ results, and to assume that if I do the same with my child, they too will achieve those results.

With a greater self-awareness from many years of personal development, I am now more conscious in the way I parent, and am learning to let go, to give my child the freedom to explore and to find out who they are and what they are here to do – minus the hovering and offering of unsolicited advice.

I believe the same strategy applies in marriage.

I must be the change I want to see.

As Michael Jackson sang:

I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change