Being a parent in this combative world can be extremely stressful.  Our parent dynamic is married, single, family, or friends, but predominantly single.  In all of this, not just the parents are stressed, but our children, feel what we feel and see what we see, just through a different lens.  Parent lens are financial, relationships, spiritual, work stress, home, health stress, and the list goes on.  Kids’ lens feed off of our stress at any age as young as infancy, for older children, social inadequacy, bullies, sexuality, self esteem, loneliness, fear, family dynamics.  Essentially we wear the same lenses, just different focal range.  We parents often wear different masks and blinders of forgetful, not placing ourselves in our children shoes, the shoes of times we forget we were young and made mistakes because of lack of knowledge.

Parents in this ball of combat, know that no matter what you are the number one advocate of your children, though tired of wearing masks, communication is essential.  Communicate, spend quality time with your children, get to know them, advise them, pull out your old rusted shoes, though a little smug, put on their shoes, take off parent lenses because if parents do not this combative world will.

Give each child 10-20 minutes of uninterrupted face time and ear time (no phones, no television, or computer), it makes a world of difference. Children are observant, show them love which conquers pain always.