As parents we try to imagine the future and hope that we can find ways to best prepare our kids. There is an argument that suggests the job of parents at home is to reflect the reality of life outside the home, in order to prepare children for the big real world outside.
But the reality is that we don't know the future. And with the current rate of change, forecasting what our childrens future is increasingly hard indeed. This is why, my wife and I came to the conclusion that the best things we could do for our son is to focus on the following:
Provide a hugely stable childhood (Yes, common sense and and an objective of every parent, right?)
Focus on his Values and Principles and Practices.
Help him understand the importance (and joy) of learning.
Give him a behavioural tool kit that gives him some flexibility of behaviours regardless of what challenges he might face.
Help him develop a strong sense of self and independence.
Teach him about family and where he came from.
I doubt there is a parent that would argue with any of these. But unless stated, written down and planned, these objectives are likely to get lost in the day-to-day pressures of life.
We have goals and initiatives inside each of these objectives. We know we are not going to get everything right. In most cases we will aim high and do our best.
But there is one thing that we will not compromise on and that is Family and family history. You see, we believe that despite all the downsides of families, there are many more upsides from really understanding where you came from.
The value of knowing who your Great Great Grandparents were, is not to be underestimated. These are sixteen people who contributed to you arriving in life. This itself is an important life lesson.
The better you know your ancestors, the more grounded you are likely to be, and the more self knowledge you might have or acquire.
In terms of understanding self, medically, psychologically, fears, strengths, and dreams, then knowledge of your family is invaluable. It gives you a sense of connectedness to the whole planet.
In the past, it may have been harder to know your ancestors. Historians exist in many respects to try to decipher the truth about our past. Even recent records of families are sketchy when we go back a couple of hundred years.
In the Digital Age there is no excuse for knowledge lost between generations.
At Digilooms, we believe that we are on the cusp of a great change, where most families will record their stories over generations. Imagine your 'great, great grandchildren' being able to dip into a collection of media that introduces them to you and the other fifteen of your generation. (Now, think about this for a second. You will never have known all of these people who ultimately contributed to the DNA of your GG Grandchild)
The Digilooms mission is to bring generations closer and help heal the planet. We do this by making it easy for people to save their Life Stories and protect their Digital Legacy for their own loved ones.