How are the children?

The Masai greet one another with, “How are the children?”.

Regardless of what culture you are a part of, the health and wellness of the children are reflections of the health and wellness of society. Years ago, a co-worker told me that you are never happier than your least happy child. We reflect them. And our society cannot be healthier than the least healthy of our children.

Parenting kind of takes your breath away, early on in awe and later on in desperation. Regardless of how many children you have and how joyful the happiest of those children is – how successful, how satisfied – as parents, we are truly never happier than our most distraught child.

Raising our children, the day to day of navigating school, sibling rivalry, friendships, sports, music, arts, whatever our kids are into, life is busy. Too busy almost for reflection. And when, all of a sudden, life provides a viewpoint, our mistakes becomes apparent. All of those decisions we made on the fly, trying to appease the masses and create peace, all of those decisions we made with the best of intentions, they stand at arms with us. They question our intent. They question our qualification.

Our children are everything. They bring us pride. They bring us sorrow. They bring us joy. They raise us to do better. They realize our shortcomings. They are the challenge that our parents wished upon us, willed upon us and laid faith in our abilities to raise. Simply. Raise. Do our best. Expect our best. No less, but also, perhaps, no more.