Jeff and I often look around at other people's kids who seem to be doing well and those we feel have succeeded in various ways, and then we then back up a step and discuss the parenting behind that child. (And often try to emulate it.)
However, I understand that a lot of kids do things and their parents had nothing to do with their choices. At least, I don't want to think so...
And then there are kids who seem to do well out of the gate, and a few years later they're off in left field somewhere.
Are we the only parents who do this? Or are there other judgmental observers out there?
Do you think that parenting is primarily responsible for where kids end up, or do you place the blame for choices squarely on the shoulders of the [adult] kids who make them? Somewhere in between?
How well have your grown kids followed what you taught them, and if not, why not? Have they explained why they took a different path? Or do they avoid those discussions????
If your kids don't succeed in life on various levels (career, relationships, religion, parenting, etc.), do you interpret that as a parental failure? How personally do you take it?
JW.
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