Blowing Water | Families come in all shapes and sizes, but love, safety and sacrifice are universal themes for good parents
- While there may be all kinds of combinations today such as families with same-sex parents or a single parent, what matters at the end of the day is the ability to raise kids into good people
Anyone can have a child and be a parent, but not everybody can be a good parent. Parenting comes with immense responsibility, moral obligations, constant worry, lifelong commitments, and personal sacrifices, even when a child reaches adulthood.
It all comes down to putting the interests of the child first, no matter what the cost – whether personal, temporal or financial. Let’s face it, not everyone is cut out to be a parent and can undertake the challenges that come with it. Some people just do not have the parental instincts or they are unable to put another person first, which is a cardinal rule of parenting. Once you have a child, you are no longer the most important person in the world.
In this day and age, there is no such thing as a typical family: a traditional nuclear family with two parents and children. There are many different types of families, such as single-parent ones, same-sex parents, transgender parents, and so on; the possibilities are endless.
However, these poster-worthy nuclear families are often portrayed as the ideal happy family model. And it is sometimes said that children with one parent might grow up becoming a little unbalanced as opposed to those living with both biological parents. This is because some people want to hold on to the conventional view that a “broken” family might have a negative impact on the emotional well-being of the child, and consequently affect their mental development.
There are also adopted families with parents who take care of children who aren’t of their own blood, with no expectation of reward. I have a good friend who has been taking care of the son of his domestic worker for 17 years after her husband was killed in a road accident before the boy was born.
So, what makes someone a good parent?