Taking responsibility for yourself and your happiness gives a great freedom to children who have felt guilty and responsible for your unhappiness {which they always do}. A child can never hope to balance the scales or repay the debt when a parent has sacrificed her life, her happiness, her fulfilment for the child or the family. Seeing a parent fully embrace life gives a child the permission to do the same, just as seeing a parent suffer indicates to the child that suffering is what life is all about.
Taking charge of one’s own happiness allows children to feel liberated from the guilt of feeling responsible for a parent's emotional state. When parents compromise their own joy and fulfillment for their children, it creates an unbalanced dynamic that children struggle to remedy. Such sacrifices can lead to a lifelong burden of guilt that children cannot realistically repay.
On the other hand, when children witness their parents embracing life fully, it...
