The basic form of my question is: What attitude should parents have towards their children?
We have already discussed the immorality of parents viewing their children as possessions, as resources to help them in their old age, and as people whose futures they can determine as they please (duplicates of themselves, etc.). How, then, should parents view their children? I think that they should view them as separate, independent entities, just as they view other adults - they should simply recognise that children have certain needs that adults do not, and thus act as teachers, some type of caretakers, and (ideally) friends. The first two attitudes should only last as long as they need to; once the child attains a level of maturity whereat they are able to make fully conscious decisions (possibly indicated by legal adulthood; certainly no later) then their actions are no longer the parents' responsibility to regulate or guide. Hopefully, parents and adult children can still maintain friendships, but if their personalities are simply not compatible, or if one party or another has an old grievance against another which makes it impossible to keep up a healthy relationship, then neither party has an obligation to continue the friendship.
No comments:
Post a Comment