An Open Letter To Parents

I could make this post into a refusal of the assignment. For lack of experience, or aversion to specificity, I could say I have no advice to give, no criticism to make, no praise to dole out.

But on second thought, that isn't completely true. What is true that I am content with how I have been made, shaped, raised, and brainwashed. It is true that I do not regret any formulation of my relationships with those who parented me, or any childhood experiences I have gone through. It is true that parenting is relative, ambiguous, and respective. I loathe shallow specifics, and avoid equally shallow generalities. "You should let your kids have candy twice a week." " You shouldn't use be negative towards your children." What does any of that mean? How does it even apply in all, if any, child-rearing situations? 

My point is this. As much as you can do to raise your child, you will not be the only one in control. My current self and contentedness with it is present because of school, media, books, friends and bums just as much as it is from my parents and the environment I grew up in. It is just as much because of the teenage girls who lived in my old apartment complex and snuck out at night to sleep around as it is because of my prodigy classmates. In the end, the child, though young, vulnerable and changeable chooses what to do with his experiences. He could just as much choose to rebel as get sucked into the parents' world. 

All I could ask of you now, parents, is to recognize it, and let it be. Then keep on truckin'.