I found Anth’s thoughts on child and parental love really interesting. I can see I have some growing to do in my adult relationships and can trace it back to why. Where I am struggling at the moment is how to adjust loving as a parent to loving more as an equal. My 18 year old daughter is finding her feet at the moment; she seems to be using them to go out as much as possible. We have always had a great relationship which is wonderful but means I tend to hear everything she’s done. It has been a sharp learning curve from wanting to lock her in the shed to releasing control and being interested without all knowing.
I suppose the parental love that Anth talked about is ideally nurturing, supportive and ultimately freeing.
Love that withholds personal experience and overprotects is not love for the other but more about keeping what is ours safe. My daughter and I are in a period of transition and neither of us really knows what the ‘normal’ way to handle it is. She says she’s just a teenager and I say I’m just a teenager’s mum, but we will get through this alive and as friends!
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