Love in the Family Essay

Giving your children unconditional love and support is the best gift you can give; it will lead them to self confidence and a strong parent child relationship. Love, sounds simple right? Well today, many parents are too worried about school grades, drug usage, and their own personal problems that they are forgetting to give there children the love and support they need. Depression in teenagers is at all time high and when children have bad relationships with their parents, they may feel that they are alone. So just like The Beatles said, â€Å"all you need is love† for, by giving your children this simple gift, you are ultimately giving self confidence, support, understanding, and a friend. Love can be interpreted in many different ways, but in my opinion, it should consist of support and understanding. Teenagers today are going through many emotional situations such as peer pressure, fitting in, and rejection, they need to have someone who they can talk to, who will understand them, support them, and give them encouragement, what better person then their parents? In the poems Warren Pryor (Nowlan, Alden) and The Average (Auden, W.H.) with out a doubt the parents loved their children, but they did not support or understand them. If they had, then their children would have been comfortable talking to their parents about how they have different dreams, instead they were afraid of their parents. If children are comfortable with their parents and feel their parents love then children will not find the need to rebel and will live their best lives. Parents tend to think that they know what is best for their child solely based on their own desires. Many parents feel they can express their love through presents and money. But in my personal experience no amount of clothes, dolls, play stations, or money can replace the feeling a child feels after a failed test, a fight with a friend, or every day disappointments in life. In The Veldt (Bradbury, 100) the parents’ expressed their love by giving their children everything they wanted. They spent endless amounts of money buying their children anything they desired. Yet, with all these expensive  gifts the children hated their parents. What the parents’ did wrong was they did not spend enough time loving their children. All the things that parents were supposed to do with their children, machines did instead. If Wendy and Peter’s parents would have supported and spent quality time with their children I’m sure Wendy and Peter would not has wished their parents’ to be dead. We can learn from this story that you must not express your love through objects but through support and understanding. Many children idolize their parents and what they want more than anything is their parents’ approval. By giving your child your support you are also giving your approval. When children do not have their parents’ approval or support they tend to go to drastic measures to achieve it. The story of The Rocking Horse Winner (Lawrence, 953) is a perfect example of how important a parent’s love truly is. The mother only cared about herself and money. The son knew this and made money for his mother. He worked so hard to fulfill his mother’s wants that he ended up dieing for it. Giving your child your love and approval will prevent this from ever happening. In my own life my parents have always supported me and have always been there for me. Being the average teenage girl, I have had many emotional experiences. There have been many times where I have felt insecure about, my friends, my weight, my grades at school, my future, and endless other things. Having my parents there to support me and to listen as I expressed my feelings helped a lot. Knowing that no matter what I did in my life they would always love me and be there for me makes me feel secure. I know I will never be alone Depression in teenagers is at an all time high. Approximately one out of ten teenagers will suffer from depression. The role parents play in this is not that the parents are responsible, but having a comfortable parent child relationship prevents or helps overcome the depression. This is because teenagers who are depressed often feel they are all alone. According to the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints, â€Å"It is important that teenagers are given the encouragement and support needed to allow themselves  to express their feelings.† (www.psychologyinfo.com/depression/teens.htm). If children are not comfortable talking to their parents then they unable to express their feelings and will fell all alone. Sadly, this helps contribute to suicide being the second leading cause death in people aged from 10-24 years old (www.ldsdepression.com/depression_in_teenagers.htm). In conclusion, children need their parents’ unconditional love and support. Friends come and go but a parent is for life. I truly believe in treat other people the way you want to be treated. And why shouldn’t that apply to your children? Growing up you most likely appreciated the good relationship you had with your mother or father or you resented your parents and wished they understood you better. A parent is their child’s backbone, and if the parent isn’t there to support and understand them, no one will be. So, do your children a favour, make them feel loved and important because that is what will make a good parent child relationship; not expensive gifts, high standards, or lack of discipline, just love.