Loving my children will be a, and not the, central priority of my life. Parenting, and loving my children will not consume me. I will not allow it to.
If loving my children has an all-consuming effect upon me, the parent, it will certainly also consume my children!
Undiluted, laser-like love, and focused attention, directed at any child will bother him, will unsettle him, more than empower him. Rather than helping him feel loved and secure he will feel unduly responsible for my emotional well-being, and that will feel like a mountain too high to climb.
Children deserve freedom from the intense, even loving gaze, of a parent.
Oh, of course, children want their parent’s undistracted focus, and of course they want the parent’s loving interest, but when a parent has too much love, and too much interest in their children (to the exclusion of other interests) then this becomes a burden for the children.
Children want our love, not the sacrifice of our lives on their behalf. Children do not need parents to be martyrs. Children want parents to be parents.
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