In the famous Korean movie Reply 1988, there is this quote that hits really close to home: “I was not a dad when I was born, and this is also my first time being a dad. So, my dear daughter, please forgive me and be patient with me!” This is what the character of the father said to his second daughter when he bought her the first birthday cake after many years celebrating her birthdays without any gifts or presents.

In the Vietnamese language, we also have a proverb that says, “Children are born before fathers, and grandchildren are born before grandfathers.” We can understand this as parents and grandparents also have to undergo many challenges in order to grow and fully be prepared for their parenthood or grandparenthood.

If parenting were a job, it would undoubtedly be the most challenging job ever, especially for the ones who have never been a parent before. They can make countless mistakes when raising their child and unintentionally hurt them due to lack of understanding between the two or due to the parents refusing to walk in their child’s shoes. But, vice versa, our child can also sometimes bring us unnecessary worries and a broken heart.

I feel pain knowing that there are still families with parents and children who no longer try to maintain the bond between them and their family. There are parents who have to continuously be under pressure for not knowing how to raise and take care of their child in the right way. And there are also parents who fail to understand the unstable emotional world of their kids, which leads to an even wider gap between the family members. And of course, there are kids (and even adults) who cannot get rid of the emotional and psychological damage they got from their parents when they were still young. These damages act as “intangible cultural heritage” that are passed on through generations and they negatively determine how a certain individual would behave and treat with the others, as well as the influence they would have on their future generations.

The more unhappy and wistful stories I have heard, the more I crave to write about the relationship between parents and children, and somehow specifically to all the moms and dads (and soon-to-be moms and dads) out there. This is how I create the “For the Moms and the Dads” section on Truly Inspired.

At this place, I would love to share my knowledge about parenting and raising children, deriving from all of my experiences and observations being both a mother and a personal coach. I hope that by reading these articles, all the parents out there will have a chance to reflect, understand and find the best path they should go in order to untangle any confusion or issues within your family.

And also, at this place, you may find things that you have kept inside your heart for a long time but yet to find the best chance to voice it out loud. I know that there are several times where you have to conceal your fatigue and pressure when teaching your child because they refuse to understand your good “intentions” behind every action of yours. Those pain and pressure are so intense that you cannot even share it with your partner or the love of your life. I hope that at Truly Inspired, we can help you to once again rediscover your true self, to find out that you are never alone, to be willing to let go of the stress and pressure you have in your life, and to feel accepted, sympathised and comforted.

I have been both a wife and a mom, and I consider myself to have a rather different and special experience compared to others. In addition, my job requires a high level of observational and detail-oriented skills, thus I hope that my knowledge can serve as a spokesperson that voice all the things that the moms and dads out there are struggling to express.

At this place, I would like to invite the parents to reflect upon their bonds with their children in order to better your relationship and emotional life. The children can also pay a visit to this place to read and understand more for their parents and for the truest intentions they hide behind all those “commands” and complaints that are given to you every day. By providing you with a variety of different viewpoints and perspectives through my articles, I believe that I can help you to have a sense of objectivity, open-mindedness and understanding for the person’s shoes that you are trying to walk in.

It is very common that people only choose to only look at certain things that they want to look at, and understand things in the way they want things to be. This leads to a lack of objectivity or altruism in the person’s judgement and causes them to fail to understand the other people even-handedly. Even for myself, I also have to learn more on how to be an unbiased and loving mom every day.

You and I, we are never perfect, and nobody is ever perfect. We can never be sure that we are capable of becoming the perfect parents. I hope that everything written down here is evidence of how instead of trying to become a perfect parent, we should try to be more compassionate and thoughtful to the other family members so that it will be easier for us to share our stories, find happiness and come up with solutions to reconnect with your loved ones. 

I am always here to accompany you, listen to all your stories and support you with confidence and belief in true happiness for your family.

Sent with my warmest hugs!

Much love,

Truly Inspired.