Why do I love facing hearty parenting challeges? Being a parent is a bit like negotiating a hostage situation. There are protocols, but no guarantees. Every move can seem delicate, crucial, with a life on the line. There are also strict warnings: absentee parents allegedly raise delinquents; aggressive punishments make your kid a bully. No wonder parents are so easily terrified of screwing up and raising apathetic kids. To compensate, many parents foist responsibility on their offspring — volunteering, fundraising — for all the wrong reasons. Too often, social pressures drive parents to coerce children into good deeds moms and dads never performed themselves. But a parent’s own actions, as the Owen family shows, are much more effective at shaping social awareness in children. When Owen travelled to Rwanda in 2010, Hannah, then 13, begged to go. “It’s not a holiday, sweetheart,” he told her. Owen believes kids are very powerful, if given the right opportunity. “Their commitment and passion and will is an extraordinary thing. I’ve seen how powerful it can be. (But) they need a door to be opened to them.” ARTICLE: o.canada/life/parenting/we-day-shows-clive-owen-in-best-role-yet-parent/
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:00:07 +0000