Beyond all material riches, the most important things in life are your relationships with fellow human beings. And before you form and nurture relationships with other people as you go through life, perhaps the first relationship you get to have is with your parents. It is one of those relationships that are pre-set, one you need not make any effort to form. Perhaps this is why you need to double your efforts to nurture such relationship if you really want it to grow.  But that is just seeing it one way.

Relationships after all are two-way streets. There are also parents that can never connect with their children because of the magnitude of difference in terms of age, generation and so on. It take a huge amount of compassion and understanding to be able to overcome conflicts, misunderstandings and miscommunication in a relationship that you can not just quit from or one that you can not file a divorce from because you just don’t like it anymore. Whatever your relationship situation is with your parents or perhaps with your kid, if you are a parent already, take note of the following guidelines to help your improve your relationship with your parents.

Do not set too many expectations and ideals in your relationships. Because of the many things you see and read in media, you have unconsciously set notions of how this relationship should go. Unfortunately, the more you do so, the more you get intimidated by the amount of work there is to be done and the results there are to be had.  At the prime of your life, allow the relationship to be bloom into one of mutual sharing and friendship. As the son or daughter to your parent, there are a lot of things that you can impart to them in the same way that you can gain a lot from the wisdom that they can impart to you.

Develop an attitude of gratitude and appreciation. Parents are not perfect; there are many things they can not do and many more they do not do because they don’t like to or it’s not according to their tradition. Whatever else the reason is, get over the frustration as soon as you can and learn to appreciate them for what they can do.

Focus on what you can do to become a better child to your parents. This may be hard to do because as the years go by, it is easier to pinpoint the many imperfections and shortcomings that your parents have. Instead of whining why your parents can’t be smarter, more open-minded, richer, more supportive.. and more, start to be consciously aware of their needs and set your mind to serve and honor them.