Sometimes I feel ill-equipped to be a parent.

Raising children has made me question all of my values and everything I believe in.  I am responsible for molding and shaping another human being.  I have to choose what I want to teach them and what values I want to instill in them.

This takes soul-searching.  It takes a commitment, a willingness to pull apart, to dredge up, to ask myself, “What do I believe in?”  It takes a willingness to question, to challenge each belief so that I may decide for myself, not because of how I was raised, not because of how I was taught, not because of how others do things, but because I have made a conscious choice about what morals, values and convictions I believe in.  And what I want to impress on my children.

Values are often taught by accident.  I prefer to decide what is important to me and teach it to my children on purpose.

Angela DiCicco