AIGAT YOUR BACK: Family Matters

SUSANNA AIGA
Opinions Editor

Family is one of those annoyingly multi-layered phenomena that can be either a poison or remedy. Unfortunately, it seems that most cannot really appreciate their parents until raising children themselves and there is probably truth in experience being the best teacher. However, we can still begin to reconcile with them now.

The relationship between parents and their children is often a rocky one. It seems that wherever there is love, there are expectations. Just as we have expectations for our parents, our parents have certain hopes for us and when there are such standards in a relationship, there is bound to be disappointment and pain. Parents want us to be successful, but also to avoid potentially painful experiences; we want our parents to be loving, but not suffocating. And so the complaints begin—our parents push us beyond our limits, they play favorites between siblings, they pay too much attention to us, they pay too little.

Sometimes all we can see are the “mistakes” our parents made in raising us, and our pain is often validated. Ultimately, though, we owe our parents so much more than they owe us. They deserve more appreciation and less blame just on sheer principle alone. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that they did the best they could with the little they had.