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The intersection of her profession (contemplating these issues andtalking to the best thinkers about them) and her family life(she's the mother of an 18-year-old and a soon-to-be-14-year-old)made Modern Parenthood want to ask her these questions: Do you think parents have a responsibility to cultivate some sortof meaning-making or spiritual sentiment in their children? It s kind of a new phenomenon in Western history right now that wehave all these kids growing up with parents who have rejected theirtraditions of origin, in a way people weren t free to dopreviously. Children ask for this. Maybe they re asking for structure andmeaning-making. Or maybe they re just asking the big theologicalquestions which they do at very young ages: Where do we come from?Why do people die? Why do people treat each other that way? So do we have an obligation to come up with something? I don tknow. But I think we have a responsibility to meet our children squestions and longings along those lines. I think that especially for people who have rejected the tradition in theirbackground that becomes an opportunity. You grew up in Oklahoma with a grandfather who was a fire-and-brimstone Southern Baptistpreacher, left that tradition when you went away from home, andfound yourself unsettled without a spiritual anchor at midlife. Howimportant is it for parents to be settled in their spirituality? In the name of not giving your children what you rejected, you alsogive them nothing to reject, to work with, to question, and tochallenge. It s true a lot of people these days do go through a period ofagnosticism or searching or atheism. That s what happened to me.But I circled back to questions of meaning, of morality, and ultimately faith as an adult. The question becomes: What do you do with that? Do you take itseriously? A lot of people hit that place when they have children.They start asking themselves this question: What do I need to passon to my children? And I think it does feel like a huge burden.But just seeing that as an adventure and as a moment of possibilityfor yourself can be really important. Rabbi Sandy Sasso [an expert on spirituality and parenting interviewed by Tippett]says, don t let the people who ruined your tradition for youdefine what that tradition is about. Often many of us even if wehave grown up uprooted or have uprooted ourselves we have amother tongue, we have a homeland. Start there; don t let it bedefined by the people who turned you away from it. See if there ssomething there for you to work with as an adult bringing yourquestions now, your curiosities now. Can you define homeland ? Your denomination. For me, my Southern Baptist upbringing was sorooted to a place, it was a whole universe which stopped makingsense when I left. I am an expert from cosmeticpackagingcontainer.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Cosmetic Cream Jars Manufacturer , Aluminium Bottle Caps Manufacturer, Lip Balm Tubes,and more.
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