Great message.
So much has happened in the last week since the death of my mother. My uncle (brother to my long deceased father) called with his condolences. It was the first call I'd received from him in forty-some years - - since my father died (airplane crash). Both he and my father had been medical school grads - Harvard and Yale, and were very competitive with one another.
My uncle really didn't know what to say to me so I emailed him and he wrote a letter back. The letter went on for several pages about the successes in his family - world renouned for this, that, the other, etc., etc. Art. Medicine. Music, you name it.
When one of my sisters and I discussed the letter, we realized that we had been brought up to aspire to nothing. We never even suspected we would work for a living as adults. Not that we aren't good people. Not that we aren't making a difference, but certainly not reaching anything close to our potentials.
What's the point? The point is that the parenting makes so much difference. The life style choices made by the parents pass on to the children. Smoking parents get smoking children. Violent parents yield violent kids. And on and on. Parents need to be aware of the number of generations they are affecting as they make their life style choices. Alcoholism. Smoking. Esteem. Aspirations. Health. Following the rules. Spirituality. And so on.
Like everything else, the word needs to be out there and in faces. It is important.