Being a Positive Child

We always read articles, excerpts and tips on effective parenting and different styles of parenting. These articles are usually directed towards the attitudes of parents criticizing, complaining, comparing and are sarcasm and often catastrophizing when the children do something that they don’t approve of. Such acts are said to seed anger, despair, hatred, fear and violence in them. The articles provide parents with advice and suggestions about dealing with children such that the qualities of inferiority and temper are not inculcated in them.

However, little have I seen being written about how a child should be. And I am not talking about the moral science articles that instruct the child to be good and obedient. I am talking about the attitude of a child especially from the age of young adulthood, helping and nurturing the parents as they go through their middle age crisis adjusting with the ever changing new world, trying to make a mark. 
My mother had taken a long break from her work to help me with my school work for about ten years. When she finally decided to get back out there to work, she had conflicting feelings about her ability and competency. This hiked especially when she was offered a better job at another place, which was a great opportunity for her growth but she had to leave the comfort and familiarity of the place where she was working at that time. And what she required was a dose of reassurance and support to boost her confidence to go forward and do something that she knew she could do. And that reassurance coming from a trusted, familiar source, her child, who in her eyes, has more energy, capability and knowledge of the current technological and work driven world, played a huge part in her decision.

We always look at parents as the ones who need to take care of children and help them grow to be a strong and confident individual and when they grow old, the children are expected to take care of their parents. However, the role of the child in the growth of the parent as an individual is never keenly looked upon. Age usually tends to affect the confidence of a person about being relevant, purposeful and productive. As the children grow, parents tend to rely on the support, physical or moral, to keep them going, working in the evolving world and facing the challenges it poses as they strive to accomplish more and reach a place where they feel productive, strong and happy about themselves. Even a word of appreciation, consideration and suggestion from the child provides them with a new confidence to explore about themselves and the world, which I think they deserve. And we owe it to them.