My Mom always used the saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” At the time I hated that saying! Since then I’ve used it on my own children and grandchildren.
Then I didn’t understand the wisdom in those words. It's taken a lifetime to understand that wisdom. And I'm still working on it!!
Parents too often take on the false belief that if they raise their children in a certain way the individual child will be perfect and will follow in the footsteps as they were taught. That thinking doesn't hold true for 2-year-olds, teens, or young adults. "You can lead a horse to water..."
Most parents also take on the false idea that if their child somehow goes against what they were taught it is their (the parents') fault. Not true. At some point in adulthood, you must make a conscious choice not to be exactly like "fill in the name, characteristic or person." That person has a characteristics that offends, or is undesirable. How many times did you say "I won't be like so-and-so", only to turn around and do a similar thing? "You can lead a horse to water..."
Two-year-olds, who are just giving parents practice for the teenage years, teens, and yound adults subscribe to the notion that Mom and Dad aren't up-to-date with today's standards, are dumb, couldn't possibly understand what it is like in today's world, and a mirade of other ridiculous ideas. "You can lead a horse to water..."
Being an adult is not an age, it is a mindset. It is doing the right thing for others because it is the right action, not for praise or accolades. Parenting is the hardest job on earth! Sometimes it takes a lifetime to become an adult. It is letting go of "self" to do the best you can do at that moment in time! "You can lead a horse to water..."
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