English
EspañolNo matter what may occur, maintain trust and affection with your children. Through it all, a child needs to know that he “has” his parents that he can go home. To his parents´ home? Yes, he can always return to their “heart,” for the doors never close. That warm heart is the refuge that every child – more so when they become parents of their children – always carries within.
Text
“A person’s affective and ethical development is ultimately grounded in a particular experience, namely, that his or her parents can be trusted. This means that parents, as educators, are responsible, by their affection and example, for instilling in their children trust and loving respect.” (The Joy of Love, n.263)
Commentary
The love parents have for each child is unconditional. Procure to always separate, in a manner that can be experienced by the children, this constant unconditional love for them from the discrepancies that arise in their education, behaviors, mistakes, and drifts. Children have the right and the need to “be able to come back” from their missteps, from the small ones and the big ones. The force that most draws them back is the warmth and tenderness of parental love. Is this not the experience and lesson conveyed by the father in the parable of the prodigal son?
Peter comments: “I have always had great trust in my parents. Even now that I have finished my degree, I tell them many things when I need advice or just to be listened to.” What led Peter to feel this trust in his parents?
He answers: “Several reasons: first because I knew that they were concerned about me, about what had happened to me during the day, it was as if they were not bored by the fact that I told them over and over again almost the same thing. They paid attention to me as if it was the first time. Then because I saw both of them working with dedication, with seriousness, I noticed that they cared about supporting sick family members or those in need, that they were good friends with their friends, that they did not speak badly of them, that they asked for forgiveness when they were wrong, that they knew how to correct me with affection when I needed it. In one sentence: because I have always felt loved by them and because they gave me an example of life values, that is why I trust them”.
