Parenting.
There are many acts of parenting we do each day.
My large, blue, five-inch thick 1983 version of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary tells me the word "parent" comes from the Latin parens, parentis, parere, to bring forth, to bear, to beget. The word parenting is defined as the work or skill of a parent in raising a child or children. However, Wikipedia is a bit more concise and modern; to be or act as a mother or father (to someone). Setting aside the obvious differences of what it means to act as "mother" and "father," I am convinced we all believe, instinctively, parenting is about being loving and offering guidance for a joyful, good, healthy life.
Parenting can be performed, under the latter definition, by anyone - friends, relatives, a pet, a therapist, a child, a hired worker, or even God, the unseen Great Mystery. We are parenting one another when we listen in rapt attention with the intention of presence and comfort. We are parenting one another when we suggest a course of action which will alleviate emotional pain. We are parenting one another when we hug one another because there is a need to feel appreciated and loved. We are parenting our own first-parents sometimes as they enter the elder years and require decisions made for them and frequent care given. This is not a complex psychological construct. This is common sense.
It is truth that no one has had perfect first-parents and no one ever will. My first-parents were grossly emotionally, mentally and morally-inadequate for the job of raising the brood of children produced. My children's first-parents (their father and I) were inadequate in myriad ways, as well. I suspect my son and daughter will also have areas of inadequacy when they embark on the path of parenting a first-family.
The job (and joy) of parenting and being parented doesn't stop because our children become adults, because we have ourselves grown up, or because we isolate ourselves and our expectations of one another so uniformly as to create some idea of who and what we are suppose to be. No, we are not that plastic as human beings.
Put expectations and suppose-to's on a shelf. Parenting by any other name is caring.
And we all need it.
