This is a contributed post and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Meet The Harris Family.
Don’t blink, because before you know it your children will be all grown up. They’ll be off with their friends committing to their own lives. Finding who you are and following what you want to do in life is all that will consume them soon. It usually starts in their early teens. They begin to veer off and away from the safety of their parents. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but you have to allow your children to get out from underneath your protective wings, and discover themselves. What makes it difficult for parents to do this early on, is the fact that you can feel possessive. Wanting your children to have their own lives and yet still remember who you are to them is the eternal struggle of the generations. Passing on timeless parts of your life onto them for when they’re good and ready is thinking of the future. Sooner or later you’ll want to give them a ‘something to remember me by’ type of passing down.
Generational Clash: Your Youth And Their Youth
Inspirational pieces
Think back into your life and pick out the parts where you felt truly inspired. Was it someone you saw and heard and felt like they were speaking for you? Could you have listened to a speech from a social, cultural or political figure that you connected with on a deep level? It might even be just a simple book that you read when you were a child that had a profound effect on your personality. Collate these pieces that are important to you so you can give them to your kids as something to supply them with inspiration. Write down the speeches or find them on the internet and print them off. See if you can buy or find the books that you love. Make the effort to find that old school record that you jammed to. Then put all these pieces into a box ready for your children to explore through one day.
Collage of music
Speaking of music, have you noticed how the music your generation has almost disappeared? Kids these days are into different styles of music that have never before existed. Innovation and new creativity is something the younger generation are always going to be attracted to. But what about the music that made your childhood? Whether it be the down south Blues, the thumping Rock n’ Roll or the new smooth R&B jams, they deserve to be time-locked. If you’re really motivated by the thought of looking at your children listening to the music of your era for the first time… you might want to think about regenerating your vinyl tracks. You can take your old vinyl editions and duplicate them onto new vinyl that will give them a newer lifecycle. You can have the standard or for a little extra, choose their color.
Granted it’s difficult to see what kind of impact bits and pieces from your youth will have on your children. But after all, don’t we all as parents wish our children could enjoy something that we did when we were their age? Call it sentimental, but the pieces of your life you leave them will afford them a chance to stay connected to you through the thick and thin.
