The Conscious Parent

children’s ability to be who they are, binding them to our psyche in a
way they don’t need.
The undermining of ego that can be initiated by becoming a parent is a
wonderful gift for both ourselves and our children. However, it involves
passing through a precarious period. When the pillars of our ego begin to
crumble, as they have to if we are to raise another spirit consciously, this
crumbling takes place in a context in which the foundations of our own
true being haven’t yet been built on.
This transition phase, which usually takes place between our children’s
birth and their early school years, results in a sense of loss followed by
confusion. As our children become more independent, we are confronted
with the void in our own life—a void that was for so long inhabited by
our children, who now seem to need us less and less. This process
intensifies in the teen years and especially when our children leave
home. As we seek to reinvent ourselves, we find ourselves fearful of who
we are going to see in the mirror. For some of us, it has been so long
since we thought of ourselves as separate from our children that we are
terrified of the idea. Feelings of guilt, sadness, and apprehension well up
as we contemplate moving back into the personalized space called “I.”
However, if we re-enter the “I” space with a sense of our regenerative
potential, we begin to experience our own innate being and at last
blossom into who we really are.
In all kinds of ways—if we are willing—our children take us into
places in our heart we didn’t know existed. In this way, they loosen the
grip of our ego and help us expand our sense of our true self, allowing us
to access our ability to love unconditionally, live fully in the present