Our Four Biggest Hopes for Our Child

A month or so ago, Vishnu and I were lying in bed on a Saturday morning chatting about random stuff.  Probably our plans for the day or something like that.  Of course, in true Parita fashion, I took a lighthearted conversation and turned it into something much deeper.  Out of nowhere, I asked Vishnu what his biggest hope for our child is.  We went back and forth for a while talking about our hopes as well as the values we want to to instill in our child from the very beginning.

Before I share our four biggest hopes, I have to talk about where all of this stems from.  In all honesty, since the election, I’ve been both a little disturbed by AND extremely proud of how humanity is showing up.  On the one hand, our president recently banned people from entering our country for no good reason.  On the other, there are millions of people around the world who are speaking up for human rights and defending each other. If I were to be totally honest, sometimes I feel so helpless when watching the news.  It just seems like so much of what’s going on right now is so far out of our control.  And I hate that feeling.  I want to make a difference.  I want to be a change agent.  I don’t want to feel helpless.

This is where the previously mentioned conversation comes into play.  Vishnu and I are about to bring another human into this world, and it’s our responsibility to guide, shape, love, teach, and prepare this little person for all of life’s ups and downs.  While the chances of us changing the world on a grand scale aren’t super likely, we can sure as hell make sure that our little human only adds to the betterment of humanity.

With that, our four biggest hopes for our child are…

LOVE.  We hope our child loves himself/herself the most.  This is a must.  When you love and trust yourself the most, life welcomes you with open arms.  Anything is possible.

KINDNESS.  We hope our child spreads kindness everywhere he/she goes.  Kindness will be our child’s religion.

GOODNESS. We hope our child does good everywhere he/she goes.  Big or small, we want our child to use his/her gifts and talents to make this world a better place.

PERSISTENCE.  Regardless of how many times he/she falls, we hope our child always gets back up and keeps moving towards his/her goals, dreams, and hopes.  Throughout our child’s life, he/she will hear about how Vishnu and I along with his/her great grandparents, grandparents, etc. stumbled and often fell hard in life, but more importantly, he/she will hear about how we all eventually got up, learned from our mistakes, and forged ahead.  No matter what.

There you have it – love, kindness, goodness, and persistence – our four biggest hopes for our child.

With that, happy Monday…make it a great one!