Photo of the author’s children
Photo by: Thirdeyemom.
My son’s first grade report card came in the mail today. I eagerly opened it with anxious anticipation. When I read the report, my heart swelled with pride. Max had done exceptionally well his first year of school and has improved in every single subject. What I liked best of all was that he received advanced marks in “effort and participation”. Clearly he was going to go a long way in life.
As a mother of two all too quickly growing children, sometimes I take a break from my day-to-day worries and obligations to reflect. It doesn’t happen often enough, believe me. But occasionally I have some time like now to sit back and think. To think about the future I want for my children and the dreams I have for them as a parent.
You see, I take parenthood seriously. Perhaps sometimes a little too seriously. Â I believe as parents we have the toughest job we’ll ever love. Â Our duty as a parent is not only to provide the basic care, love and affection for our children but also to prepare our children to enter the world. In my opinion, that is the toughest, most challenging aspect of parenthood possible.
We all have hopes and dreams for our children. Â Some of these dreams are selfish and some are selfless.
My dreams are simple:Â I want my children to be be happy, loving, respectful citizens of the world. Â I want them to wear a smile on their faces each day even when faced with adversity. I want them to be loving and respectful of all things on this earth. Â To respect other people no matter what their differences may be. To respect nature and the environment. Â To love life with zest and vigor. Â To share their love with others. Â To give back to those in need and to help make this world a better place. Â To smile at a stranger on the street and to accept who they are and what they’ve become.
Sometimes I fear that I’m not doing a good enough job at this enormous task of raising happy, productive world citizens. Â I worry that I need to do more. I hope I’m setting a good role model by all my volunteer work and travels abroad. Â Yet I’m not always sure they understand me and what I do.
I want to share my dreams of a better future for people in places that have nothing. Â I want them to see firsthand the poverty, disparity and beauty of the world. Â It is a promise I’ve made to myself that someday they will. Â And when they do, they will also be inspired to give back and to care. Â To remember how fortunate we are to be able not only to have dreams but to have the opportunity and chance to make our dreams come true.
What are your hopes and dreams for your children? Â Do they mirror your own?
This is an original post for World Mom’s Blog by thirdeyemom.
I don’t know if I can answer this question, seeing as I have no children of my own but I’m going to anyways. Just a little background information for you, my dream in life is to be a mom. It’s the one thing I’ve always wanted. Anyways though I hope my children are happy. I hope they can dream big and achieve things even I couldn’t. One thing my parents never did was care about my grades, which I thought was weird when everyone else’s parents did, So I will be a lot harder on them about there grades.I graduated with all A’s but my parents never cared, nor congratulated me. I would like them to get scholarships to college and attend college. All I want for my kids is to let life take you places that you’ve never been, and to take chances.
Wow, what a beautiful, inspirational comment. I am sure you will be a wonderful mom someday! Yes, sometimes we take parenthood for granted. Forget how fortunate we are to have our children. Thanks again for reminding me how lucky I am to have two loving kids that I would give my life for! 🙂
I don’t know if I can answer this question, seeing as I have no children of my own but I’m going to anyways. Just a little background information for you, my dream in life is to be a mom. It’s the one thing I’ve always wanted. Anyways though I hope my children are happy. I hope they can dream big and achieve things even I couldn’t. One thing my parents never did was care about my grades, which I thought was weird when everyone else’s parents did, So I will be a lot harder on them about there grades.I graduated with all A’s but my parents never cared, nor congratulated me. I would like them to get scholarships to college and attend college. All I want for my kids is to let life take you places that you’ve never been, and to take chances.
Wow, what a beautiful, inspirational comment. I am sure you will be a wonderful mom someday! Yes, sometimes we take parenthood for granted. Forget how fortunate we are to have our children. Thanks again for reminding me how lucky I am to have two loving kids that I would give my life for! 🙂
Reblogged this on thirdeyemom and commented:
My post on World Mom’s Blog is up today! It is about the “mom” part in me. Hope you stop by to take a look! In case you haven’t heard, World Mom’s Blog made it in the Forbes Magazine top 100 best blogs for women! We are growing rapidly and always looking for more mommy bloggers to join our crew! :)thirdeyemom
Reblogged this on thirdeyemom and commented:
My post on World Mom’s Blog is up today! It is about the “mom” part in me. Hope you stop by to take a look! In case you haven’t heard, World Mom’s Blog made it in the Forbes Magazine top 100 best blogs for women! We are growing rapidly and always looking for more mommy bloggers to join our crew! :)thirdeyemom
We live in South Africa, and my children learnt from very young the difference between a “need” and a “want”. I taught them to be grateful every day that we have all we NEED, even if we don’t always have all we WANT!
Now that one of them is 19 and the other 16 they make me proud every day by the way they handle their finances (both work – the 19 yr old graduated high school last year and works full-time; the younger one works part-time).
Believe me … kids learn from what you DO way more than from what you SAY! My teens often come and tell me about how they’ve handled a certain situation and I’m SO proud cos they’re WAY more mature (in a good way) than I was! As long as you give your kids a good foundation to grow from and ongoing support, you can trust them to be the people they were meant to be!
Thanks so much for the comment Mamma Simona! I totally agree that we are our kids role models and I am only hoping that I’m doing a good job at it. Sometimes it seems so daunting, the task at hand. I’ve seen too many of my friends screwed up mostly due to the way their parents raised them (bad parenting). It can stay with people forever and it scares me! But we can only try our best, right. You must be very proud about your children!
I’m SUPER proud of my kids, but I want to reassure you that even “bad” parenting can be overcome. What I learnt most from my own childhood was how NOT to be. I suffered then so my children didn’t have to suffer now.
Wow, very powerful. Thanks for the comment. I always think back about my best friend whose parents were terrible. She grew up always suffering and still even at age 40 can’t get through it. But that is true, if you have the courage to realize your parents mistakes and learn from them, you will know how to not be. I am sorry that you suffered so much as a child. That is very sad but I’m also happy you’ve found strength and love in your own family today. 🙂
We live in South Africa, and my children learnt from very young the difference between a “need” and a “want”. I taught them to be grateful every day that we have all we NEED, even if we don’t always have all we WANT!
Now that one of them is 19 and the other 16 they make me proud every day by the way they handle their finances (both work – the 19 yr old graduated high school last year and works full-time; the younger one works part-time).
Believe me … kids learn from what you DO way more than from what you SAY! My teens often come and tell me about how they’ve handled a certain situation and I’m SO proud cos they’re WAY more mature (in a good way) than I was! As long as you give your kids a good foundation to grow from and ongoing support, you can trust them to be the people they were meant to be!
Thanks so much for the comment Mamma Simona! I totally agree that we are our kids role models and I am only hoping that I’m doing a good job at it. Sometimes it seems so daunting, the task at hand. I’ve seen too many of my friends screwed up mostly due to the way their parents raised them (bad parenting). It can stay with people forever and it scares me! But we can only try our best, right. You must be very proud about your children!
I’m SUPER proud of my kids, but I want to reassure you that even “bad” parenting can be overcome. What I learnt most from my own childhood was how NOT to be. I suffered then so my children didn’t have to suffer now.
Wow, very powerful. Thanks for the comment. I always think back about my best friend whose parents were terrible. She grew up always suffering and still even at age 40 can’t get through it. But that is true, if you have the courage to realize your parents mistakes and learn from them, you will know how to not be. I am sorry that you suffered so much as a child. That is very sad but I’m also happy you’ve found strength and love in your own family today. 🙂
I see you posted from Minnesota. I am also a “Mini”. I have 4 daughters. I share my story about gender discrimination so that maybe in the future our children will never be exposed to this type of hurtful , damaging mindset of marginalization in the world. Thanks to your blog for moms like me.
https://www.facebook.com/letmymommydrive
Wow, I can hardly believe the coincidence in what you are working on. I told my kids today about my involvement with human rights and how I attended the Advocacy for Human Rights benefit last week. My son asked me what human rights are and I started to tell him. I was talking about women’s rights in particular and brought up exactly what you are referring to. How I can have the right to be me.
At WMB, I am the editor for our Human Rights Column that posts once a month. If you are ever interested in writing a guest post on your work please contact me as we’d love to feature you. Thanks! Nicole http://www.thirdeyemom.com
Of course, as long as it is approved by my attorneys.Here is my email ad gretchencpr@gmail.com
I see you posted from Minnesota. I am also a “Mini”. I have 4 daughters. I share my story about gender discrimination so that maybe in the future our children will never be exposed to this type of hurtful , damaging mindset of marginalization in the world. Thanks to your blog for moms like me.
https://www.facebook.com/letmymommydrive
Wow, I can hardly believe the coincidence in what you are working on. I told my kids today about my involvement with human rights and how I attended the Advocacy for Human Rights benefit last week. My son asked me what human rights are and I started to tell him. I was talking about women’s rights in particular and brought up exactly what you are referring to. How I can have the right to be me.
At WMB, I am the editor for our Human Rights Column that posts once a month. If you are ever interested in writing a guest post on your work please contact me as we’d love to feature you. Thanks! Nicole http://www.thirdeyemom.com
Of course, as long as it is approved by my attorneys.Here is my email ad gretchencpr@gmail.com
From all I can grasp from your writing, you are doing an admirable job!
From all I can grasp from your writing, you are doing an admirable job!
I think the most important is how important to be curious about other people, imagine life in their shoes, and also feel the desire to help people who are less fortunate to make their lives better. I don’t mind what profession my daughters choose in life. I just hope they they have a very open minded view of the world and try to understand people who are different and do different things than them.
I agree with Madhu!
Jen 🙂
Thanks Jen! Hope you are enjoying your vacation! 🙂
I think the most important is how important to be curious about other people, imagine life in their shoes, and also feel the desire to help people who are less fortunate to make their lives better. I don’t mind what profession my daughters choose in life. I just hope they they have a very open minded view of the world and try to understand people who are different and do different things than them.
I agree with Madhu!
Jen 🙂
Thanks Jen! Hope you are enjoying your vacation! 🙂
My biggest hope for my daughter is that she will be a very happy person. I want her to be a joyful person who brings joy to those around her! She’s only 2 months right now, but so far it seems to be working out 🙂
I think that happiness is one of the best things you can hope for as we all know without happiness your life is miserable. It sounds like your baby is off to a great start! Keep smiling!
My biggest hope for my daughter is that she will be a very happy person. I want her to be a joyful person who brings joy to those around her! She’s only 2 months right now, but so far it seems to be working out 🙂
I think that happiness is one of the best things you can hope for as we all know without happiness your life is miserable. It sounds like your baby is off to a great start! Keep smiling!
Great post. I don’t have children yet, but want them to be the best they can be and hope that I will be able to help them do that.
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the post and yes, raising good productive future citizens of the world (aka kids) is an enormous, daunting task but one I aspire to fulfill.
Great post. I don’t have children yet, but want them to be the best they can be and hope that I will be able to help them do that.
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the post and yes, raising good productive future citizens of the world (aka kids) is an enormous, daunting task but one I aspire to fulfill.