Teaching Children Lessons From Our Youth

Last week I wrote about passing down your favorite movies from your childhood to your children. Ellenore Angelidis, who blogs at workingmother.com, recently wrote about going to her son’s eighth grade graduation, and how that transported her back to her eighth-grade-self for a few moments.

It’s a very interesting post, and an even more interesting topic. Angelidis writes how being at the ceremony brought her back to being an awkward eighth-grader with no friends, and how the girls in her school would laugh at her.

Angelidis confides that her children are confident and outgoing and hopes they will never face the rejection that she did, but she also wants to make sure her children are never the ones rejecting others either.

“Teaching my kids empathy and visiting my younger self when I need to find it are legacies I chose to keep,” Angelidis wrote. “The memories remind me I am not that girl anymore. I gained the power to use negative experiences…to find a positive impact.”

What lessons from your childhood do you hope to pass onto your children? If I could say anything to high school-me, I would tell him to open up a little more and not be so scared to try new things. I look forward to passing that on, along with a love of The Beatles, to my children one day.