A List of Wants I Have For My Children

What do I want for my children? When they are growing up and grown up what will I hope they have?

Possess faith in God
Live as a Christ-follower
Follow society’s rules and laws
Be responsible
Be honest
Be alive with a feeling of hope
Have an optimistic outlook on life
Believe that there is more good in the world than evil
Able to feel joy and happiness
Be in good health
Be physically active not passive or sedentary
Have an open heart, accept and give love freely
Have respect for other people and show it
Have a balance of obligation and free choice in their lives
Demonstrate good communication skills
Be diplomatic
Able to feel a range of emotions and discuss them with tact
Able to think for themselves
Able to think outside the box, is a creative thinker
Be a leader not a follower
Do something because it’s right not because it is popular
Possess a lack of fear of being judged by others
Know that in life the possibilities are endless
Feel empowered to make things happen
Try their hardest
Strive for excellence
Be educated
Know how to teach themselves
Be a lifelong learner
Like to work with autonomy
Enjoy working in their career field, not feeling trapped or coerced
Able to financially support themselves and their family
Do volunteer work; help others; contribute to the community
Able to look back on their lives without regrets

I am not sure if this is too-tall an order but these are my hopes for my children. A parent should have high hopes and aims, shouldn’t they?

Being a visitor to the hospital and seeing so many sick people and seeing my grandmother suffer has made me see a larger picture of life. Rather than micro-focusing on parenting and homeschooling my children in the daily small tasks type of thing, I am thinking today of overall life goals and hopes. I am also thinking that when I am old and dying, and relying on my children and grandchildren to help make decisions about my care or actually caring for me themselves, how would I like them to be as people? This then shifts my viewpoint of how I am looking at mothering and homeschooling my children right here and now, today. I think is good sometimes for all parents and especially for homeschooling parents to be able to change the focus to the very big picture rather than focusing on a more microscopic viewpoint.

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