Image: Flickr/Kevin Shorter

“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.” (Jim Morrison)

Okay, so the mysterious front man for The Doors is certainly not the greatest expert on parenting, but he does speak the truth in this quote. The ones we love the most are often the ones capable of doing the most damage. Families are capable of creating the most hurtful situations imaginable from one human to another because hurt so often occurs in the very context that should be the safest. Sometimes, in a well-intentioned effort to do “what’s best” for our children, we stifle them or smother them altogether. We get anxious when they stray from our idea of how they should turn out. So, instead of helping them grow into what they can be, we close doors and tell them what they can’t be.

How different would our families look if we encouraged the strengths that our children exhibit instead of focusing so much on the “weaknesses” they may or may not have?