What Do I Dream Of When I Have Everything I Want?
Sometimes our dreams are like kites that we let fly into the air. We let them pull up very high, let them go until they float very close to the stars. Most of the time, however, we find true, authentic happiness much closer to the ground.
It blooms in the garden of life, where it is enough to be close to the people we love most: our partner and our children.
Albert Einstein once said that there is a driving force when it comes to success – it is stronger than steam, electricity and atomic energy. This driving force is our will.
It is the power that makes us fight every day for what is most important to us. The little ones that we care for and that are worth all of our efforts because they bring us so much happiness and contentment.
To be good parents, it is important to care for and respect our loved ones. In this way we offer our children a good education and they can grow up happy.
In fact, dreaming about perfection all the time is a common mistake many mothers and fathers make.
This causes them to accumulate endless frustrations in the long run. In addition, this sometimes leads to other, real needs being neglected.
We don’t have to live the perfect life or own a dream home. Nor do our children need to go to the very best schools or learn all the skills they might need as early as possible. Our children don’t have to be the biggest, the most beautiful …
We shouldn’t have to be the perfect family in the eyes of others. We don’t have to be the family that always has everything under control and achieves every goal.
Let’s put it very clearly: There are no perfect families, no perfect couples and also no perfect children. We have to allow ourselves to be real people with real and clear priorities – and one of those priorities should be happiness.
I dream that my children can become anything they want
Dreaming is good. Not only is it free, but it also allows us to focus on specific goals. Dreams give us something to fight for.
However, when it comes to a family in which the parents are good partners, it is more enriching to develop dreams together – in which the children are the main characters.
- As parents, we should avoid trying to imagine what our children’s lives should be like. It is not healthy to try to live our lives through them again and force them to fulfill our dreams. We should give them the space to dream and plan their own future.
Something we learned from Naomi Aldort’s book, Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, is that the feeling of freedom should always be paramount when it comes to the small team that is made up of our loved ones back home.
Freedom should be understood as a principle of personal fulfillment and self-realization and as a way of developing and growing as people.
Freedom allows us to accept new dreams and new challenges while being assured of the support of our loved ones.
Suddenly I realize that I have everything I want
All of a sudden – almost like from one day to the next – you will notice that you have everything you want. The only thing you long for is for everything to stay as it is – or after that, for time to pass more slowly so that you can enjoy the joy and happiness even longer.
Maybe you don’t have everything you once dreamed of in the past. Maybe you don’t have the best job in the world, enough free time to take care of yourself, or a few more zeros in your bank account.
But how important is all of this now? At the end of each day, you put your head on your pillow and you know that your child will grow up happy, healthy and valuable.
Every morning you have breakfast with your partner while looking at each other conspiratorially because you don’t need words to tell yourself that you are happy.
You couldn’t think of anything better. The simple harmony … being part of the best team in the world.
When a life is only two days and one of those days is cloudy, I teach my child to dance in the rain
There will be good days and bad days in your family life. There will be some challenges that may seem insurmountable at first.
But despite all the difficulties, financial fluctuations, and personal crises, it will continue to be the life you love. For one simple reason: it includes the people you love most.
- As your children get older, they also become more demanding. They will demand things, demand rights and freedoms, and even compare themselves to their classmates to see that they do not have the same clothes, toys, or lifestyle as other families.
- This is a key moment. It’s a moment when you should instill in them the knowledge that happiness comes from the simple things. True well-being does not come from the accumulation of things, objects, branded clothing or the latest technology.
Real well-being comes from having good self-esteem, an afternoon playing in the park, a family beach trip, a bike ride with dad, a pet; from new friendships, from drawing with mom or the knowledge that your children are getting older, safer, freer and more competent every day.
It is wise to teach our children that life is not perfect. Because everything is not always as it is in the picture book – and yet, or perhaps because of it, life can be wonderful.
