Prisoners of Our Own Paradigm

Warning: this topic is likely to be considered ad nauseam over the coming weeks/months.

I have been pondering at length what good parenting should entail, specifically the role I play as father to my children. The greatest difficulty that I face is that I am a prisoner of my own paradigm. I just don't know what I don't know ! My understanding of life and of parenting has been subconsciously shaped by my experiences. Although I have watched others parent from a distance, my primary experience of parenting comes from my own experience of being a child. This would be true for the vast majority of us, which is why we laugh at times and comment on how we are acting just like our parents did! Hence, my view of fatherhood has been shaped by how my father played his role as a father, and his by his father on and on into an infinite regress of sorts!

But no father is perfect, certainly not me! And (sorry Dad if you read this post) my father wasn't perfect either. But how does one do things differently? When confronted with circumstances or challenges, our minds rifle through our experience/knowledge database looking for ideas and we then select what is perceived to be the most appropriate option. However, there is often a plethora of alternative possibilities that we never consider because they are not part of our knowledge base. Again, we are stuck in our own paradigm. Yet all is not lost! Paradigms can change, but that often entails a fair amount of angst, agony and aspiration. Stay tuned!