Dear Reader

April 15, 2022

Dear Reader

I just want to sit down with you and talk.

Lately, my daughter has been working through an exercise in self-trust.

It involves boundaries and privacy and

Being honest about needing space.

It involves learning to honor oneself before the image other’s hold of us.

My daughter is feeling suffocated

By the insecure needs of another

And it’s hard to find courage and words

To demonstrate allegiance to self

Without feeling like a monster

Being caring and highly sensitive,

Wanting to please others yet

Needing to protect your energy

Can feel impossible.

Learning that kindness is being tactfully honest,

Instead of using sugar coating niceties that make you cringe.

It takes looking hard in the mirror,

Facing the real root of our irritations…

They stem from what we allow.

How many grown people don’t have the tools

To construct effective + empathetic confrontation?

It is in our youth that

The ball too often gets dropped

And we learn to pretend, to please, to patronize,

Instead.

When we know better,

Better we must do.

Our children

They need us to gift them

With vocabulary and verse,

“I” statements carried in the proverbial purse.

Accountability looks different depending the situation

Too often blame gets placed on an expectation

Someone else isn’t filling.

But blame we must take for our own perceptions.

If we do not speak the truth of what is in our hearts,

Assumptions are made, wires get crossed.

So swallow your pride,

Be decent and direct.

Lead a generation

To better communication.

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy 4 Ways to Stay Connected to Your Preteen or The Paradox of Pain and Parenting

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