Parental Influence

Many of us think that we don't want to be influenced by are parents, and try our best not to be in a fight for independence, but can we really go uninfluenced by someone we spent all 16 years of our life with? Your parents influence you everyday of your life, whether you know it or not, and will continue to for the rest of your life, even after they have passed. First off, they are the ones who raised us, creating who we are today, and many of our decisions are influenced by the childhood we had. Your parents also have the experience of going through life before you, and understand what we are dealing with. They can help us make good decisions to be more successful in life. Now today, there are times we work to make our parents proud, times we just simply do what is asked of us, and times we work to disobey our parents in reaction to something or to help us feel more independent. Even Amir, in The Kite Runner, is influenced by Baba years after his passing when making his decision to go back to Afghanistan, because quite frankly, it is impossible to go uninfluenced by someone you have spent that much time with.