A friend and I were having a discussion this morning. We were talking about how some of us misunderstand nurturing. We’re smothers rather then mothers. We seek to protect our young from anything and everything ‘bad’ in the world.
Now, I certainly don’t consider anything ‘wrong’ with being stewards of our children’s survival, until they reach an age they can do for themselves. Where smothering comes in, is when our children have been so protected from the ‘evil’ of the world, that they don’t have a clue as to how to relate and survive, themselves, in it.
I said imagine a mother bird, who brings everything her baby bird needs to their nest, a comfy place she created. ‘Oh no, you don’t want to leave the nest. There are dangers out there. A hawk could get you or a cat pounce on you. The outside world is a place to be afraid of.” So the baby birds get fat. Their wings atrophy. And no matter how much stuff momma bird continues to bring to their nest, to keep her babies attention occupied, it never is enough.
She eventually wears herself out, eating and regergitating everything for her babies, who are now fully grown. She dies. And all her children die.
Without ever mating.
without ever having any children of their own.
without ever learning how to fly.
and without ever experiencing the joys of their own nature.
The ways of a dodo.
It is far wiser to teach our children the ways of the world, ALL of them and, teach how to relate to them, deal with them and cope with them.
Then the world isn’t such a scarey place and our children can experience soaring in it.
