Keeping Your Own Identity

To add to what I posted yesterday, I saw this quote on Facebook this morning and it seemed to fit in with what I wrote yesterday:


"Before you give up your opinions, your friends, your family, your dreams, your ways for somebody else, know this: Love asks you to surrender your heart, not relinquish your life. If it’s asking for everything, then it isn’t the passionate heartbeat of Love you’re hearing, but the selfish thumping of Control pounding its own chest. ~ Sandra Kring"

"What does any of this have to do with the basic theme of your blog?" you might ask. 

This blog is about living more in harmony with your surroundings. It is
 about raising children to also appreciate that harmony of life. When we live in a controlling environment, or we are not allowing ourselves and each other to be our authentic selves, we pass that lifestyle along to our children and teach them that it is the appropriate way to live.


I want every child to feel EMPOWERED to live life to its full potential. I want them to be ENCOURAGED to have a voice and use it, to feel the freedom of expressing themselves (hopefully with respect) as needed. I want my children to realize that fairness, equity, cooperation and an open exchange of ideas and responsibilities creates harmony.


Why would I/anyone want children to feel as though they should give their power away to someone else? My children are beautiful souls who deserve the ability to grow in so many ways. They do not need the constraints of control-based gender-role models. This is not just about empowering the girls, but also showing the boys that they are not the rulers of our world. They SHARE the world with their female counter parts. Sure, each partner in a relationship may divvy up responsibilities and roles to ensure a smooth running home. That does not mean that anyone is 'in charge' over the other.


Yes, I do joke about wearing the pants in our family.  It's not actually true. I like to believe that my husband and I share in many of our family decisions. If he or I are strongly against something, we discuss it and come to a compromise. 


It's funny how when a woman exerts her own power and uses her own voice, she is labeled a b!t@#, and yet when a man does the very same thing, he is simply fulfilling his 'role'. This needs to change, and I do see that it is slowly changing. Yes, women and men are often different in how they might approach things, but that does not give 1 of them the power to lord over the other. Harmony is achieved when each partner has a voice, and when each partner has equal abilities to make decisions.