From My Place of Great Ignorance (FMPOGI)

 

I was writing an essay on Transgenderism and Tranracialism, and I realized how ignorant I was. Not about the transgender or black experience (though I am massively ignorant about those). My ignorance is on what is the obligation of society and the rights of the individual. I am working it out, but it got me thinking about people who make comments with such conviction of their rightness and the wrongness (and usually evil intent) of others. Take your top five beliefs that others disagree with (religion, politics, history, etc.). You are completely wrong about one of them. We still must live as citizens and vote and support causes. But perhaps we could do it with a bit more fear and trembling.

It got me thinking about parenting. My neighbors came home with the new baby, and we were lucky enough to catch them as they just got home. He was so full of joy and wonder and just plain surprise that they let him come home with this fragile thing. And they were suppose to keep it alive and thriving. For 18-21 years!! How anyone thinks that they are doing the right thing is beyond me. But still we have to parent. We read books, listen to people, think about how other people do it. But we are so ignorant.

My parents passed a few years ago, and I have been thinking about them more and more. They were great parents, but I don’t think they got it just right. I think (and maybe this is one of my beliefs that I am wrong about) that most of who we are is baked in at birth. But if that is true, you should probably parent different type of kids differently. But you only know you (and you probably don’t even know yourself that well). And you only know what your parents did (and unless you are the oldest kid, you have little idea of what they did for the first five years or so). So how are you suppose to know how to parent different type of kids? Like teaching, the “rules” of parenting seem to be changing all the time. And what is the end product? How should we live?