Love or Obligation? (Family Perspective)

February the 24th, 2007
1530 hrs

Topic of Discussion : Is taking care of one's child just a responsibility/obligation or is it because of the love that the parents have for the child and the want to provide the child with the best of the opportunities that they themselves wouldn't have got?

The new generation thinks that it is all routine for things to happen and fall in place and that getting better education and more bigger opportunities are just normal in life, the love the parents show and the responsibility that the parents shoulder to bring them up in the best way is just ordinary and happens everywhere. But, they prefer to ignore the fact that there are many people who wouldn't treat these events in life as normal or routine as they know the value.

At the end of the discussion, I was at EASE (E - Emotional, A - Angry, S - Sad, E - Empty), just because, I was the only person who was fighting for the reason that parents love their children first and that, everything that they do for you comes from the responsibility derived from the love that they always have for you.

Taking responsibility for every action you do is certainly important, but can that kind of responsibility be compared to the responsibility that falls on the parents at the birth of a child. So, now another question comes out in the open. Is the child born because of the reason of love between the parents, or was it just because a illicit sexual relationship?

One of my friends was saying that, parents who send money from the Gulf, really wants their children to use the money and enjoy and they become happy at seeing that, because they never go a chance to do that when they were young and that the parents live their dream through their children. I would agree to that to an extent. But what do parents really want their children to have? I would say that, the parents want their children to get the facilities (books and atmosphere ) that they themselves lacked during their schooling and college days and not by providing the most expensive of liquor that they never had and never the cigarettes that the children puff into their lungs. Wrong interpretations of what the parents want their children to do by the children, tend to take their life in the wrong way. But which way is wrong. Who know? I'm not GOD and I don't decide!!!!

I certainly agree that these thoughts may be completely relative to a person. But, I wouldnt agree at any point that taking care of your own is an obligation. If it feels as an obligation, you are just mechanically doing something that you don't really want to do, but just finishing off your obligation just because the society is looking at you.

I'm not one of that kind. I'll love my wife (when I marry :-)) and will take care of my children with love and care and will be take their responsibility not just because I'm their father, but because I love them and want them to do better in life.