Being a Good Parent

By Harold Klemp

At fourteen, my daughter’s getting past the stage where she likes video games. “Next year,” she said, “I’ll be a woman.”

“A woman?” I asked.

“When you’re fifteen,” she explained, “people see you as more than just a girl.” But since she’s just fourteen, she’s willing to wait another eleven months to be considered a woman.

I try to be a good parent and listen patiently to my daughter. It’s not always easy. Sometimes I feel left out. “Let’s talk about video games,” I’ll say. She’s tolerant, but she’d much rather talk about boys.

Parents have to remember that they themselves were teenagers. They too went through that confused, muddled state of puppy love. They survived. Children are merely going through the same stages on the way to adulthood.

Recently my daughter announced that she thought fourteen was old enough to start dating. “Last year we used to talk about grades and studies,” I reminded her. “Do you realize how seldom we ever talk about that anymore?

“But, Dad, these days everybody goes on dates in their first year of high school,” she informed me. What she meant was, As opposed to when you went, ancient one.

Sometimes the greatest love a parent can show a child is just to listen. Often this can be difficult. As the adult who has been through something, you can see further into the future than your child can. You can see a lot of heartache ahead as your child takes uncertain steps toward trying to find human love. Yet, human love is one of the first steps to divine love.

I try to see the ECK in expression in my daughter as she goes through the learning process. After all, children are young only in the physical body. As Soul, they have been here many times, going through the changes from childhood to adulthood even as you and I have.

—Harold Klemp, The Eternal Dreamer, pp. 55–56