"Don’t Make Your Parent’s Mistakes"

All of our parents had strengths and weaknesses. They were human; there was no other possibility.

Some of us decided to be like our parents. Some of us decided to be the opposite of our parents.

But we’re human too. So therefore we’re like our parents in some ways and unlike them in other ways. And not only in the ways we’ve chosen. And not only in the ways we know about.

With honest introspection, most of us can find (in ourselves), some degree of the same weaknesses that our parents had. Even the ones we decided that we would never have.

For those who prefer projection over introspection, it’s more fascinating to find these weaknesses in your partners (rather than yourself.) But there are some serious problems with this method.

The challenge is to acknowledge our own weaknesses and work on them. Don’t just make the same mistakes your parents made. Succeed where they didn’t by working through the very same issues a little further than they did.

And, we hope, our children will work them through even one step further.