The other day at a family gathering, one of my many aunties accosted me in the hallway saying ‘Dahling, we LUV your page. But I don’t read it as much since we’re old now, we don’t do that Parenting thing anymore’. After a few minutes of the obligatory head nodding and air kissing as I was making a quick getaway it made me wonder do we ever stop being parents?

When does that point where the greatest relationship in life, ‘parent to child’ come to an untimely death?. Yes I agree with my auntie, my page is mostly a good read for young families dealing with everyday dilemmas of bringing up children but my topics do try and get everyone involved including the grandparents.

When your first child is born, their birth also gives rise to a new you, The Parenting you. This unlike other relationships in your life will, in my opinion, never end. You stop being a child, you stop being a teenager, you lose friendships, sometimes you even stop being husband and wife but through it all being a Parent never has a stop and eject button.

Yes of course in the early years, being a parent is obvious. You need to be there for your children as they grow from infants to children. You need to guide them during their hormonal tumultuous teen years and as they approach semi-adulthood you cross your fingers and pray to the gods that they have listened to all your good advice and will make the correct decisions in life.

Being a parent to an adult is where you will really get tested on your parenting skills. Now that they are out of your house, it does not mean the parent to child relationship has being severed with that last wave goodbye.

This is when you need to fine tune your parenting skills, you need to be there but not be too involved, and you need to give advice but not criticize. It was probably a lot easier in their toddlers years where if you didn’t like something you gave them a timeout and put them to bed at the end of the day.

In all honesty, after three decades and a bit under my belt, I still need my parents. I still need ‘that super couple’ who I know will protect me through thick and thin. Who I know that even though they might wish better for me will still be my biggest cheering squad. They are the only ones who I will trust completely with my children, my life.

So folks, once you’re a parent, you’re always a parent. It is the greatest relationship that you will ever have in your life. It might have you at your knees in despair one day or bursting at the seams with pride and joy the next. But remember, hug your children tightly, do right by them for if your fail your children, you fail yourselves, for they represent your immortality that will live on through the generations.

Never stop being a Parent!

By Mayuri Jayasinghe