Choices Have Consequences

The choices that we make have lasting consequences. Whether we are mere children deciding what to play we or adults deciding where to live the choices we make have consequences. When we are making our choices we must consider them carefully because the effects can be long lasting and often devastating. In our lives there are always going to be decisions to be made, and they will form who we become.

As children our parents make all of our decisions for us. They decide when and what we eat, what we wear and where we live. As we get older they begin to let us make some of our own decisions. Usually, there are those parents that refuse to let go. Instead of teaching us to stand on our own, spreading our wings to fly they try to anchor us. Whether it’s out of a fear for our safety or the need to control the results can be devastating for the child that never truly gets to grow up.

When we feel that we are being pushed toward our future rather than making our path to it ourselves it can cause resentment. While we want support and guidance we never actually want someone to make our paths for us. We find it to be rather irritating but we put up with it for a long time before we stop. Why do we put up with it so long?

There are a number of reasons, none of which make sense to us down the road when we are living with the consequences. What are the results of having over bearing parents that have a knack for taking over no matter what we say or do? We first begin to feel suffocated as they attempt to rule every aspect of our lives sometimes more closely than they did when we lived in the house with them.

You would think that a grown person in their third marriage with three children would be able to make their own decisions without second guessing themselves. You’d be wrong after they spent years having someone step in and take over no matter what they did. When you can’t pick your own major in college because it’s too much of a fight you drop out. Years later you try to go back just to discover that it’s too late for you. The passion to learn is gone, and you aren’t even sure that you can anymore.

The biggest consequence of allowing our parents to butt into our life is that we grow lazy. We forget how to do things for ourselves. We live in fear of making decisions. Instead of living in fear and allowing someone else to lead us through our lives we should take charge as soon as we can be held responsible for our actions. This way we are the only ones that have our lives in our hands.

When we have control of our own lives we are the only ones to blame for our personal failures. This way we don’t hold resentment against anyone that may have attempted to control us.