Being a parent i look back at my upbringing and start to understand where certain of my behavior comes from. I see where my own parents went wrong and for back of a better word "screwed up". It is maybe harsh to say but it is the truth. Its scary to think that you have the power of shaping a human being and no matter how we twist and turn - we will traumatize our children. Hopefully that will be limited damage. The answer on how well we do is when the child is already grown up and then we are powerless to correct our mistakes. In worse case scenario your child will turn your back on you and you will never see them again. The other hard part is that we only have one chance and really there are no parenting schools. There might be guidelines but they are only guidelines and not necessarily correct. We follow our intuition and step back looking back at our own life trying not to make the mistakes our parents did. Perhaps we will succeed, but fact is even though we will do the best we know how to - we will make mistakes. At the end of the day if we stay true and follow our hearts the mistakes will not be too traumatizing and our children will understand and forgive us. Only time will tell.
