Root Bound
Rootbound- A condition which exists when a potted plant has outgrown its container. The roots become entangled and matted together, and the growth of the plant becomes stunted. When repotting, loosen the roots on the outer edges of the root ball, to induce them to once again grow outward.
Parenting is such a challenging balancing act. It is imperative that we continually observe our children and their growth, trying to gauge the proper environment to enhance their maturity and continued growth, helping them thrive and become the beautiful person they are meant to be.
It is so easy for a parent to want to guard his/her child so closely and to protect so intensely that the child becomes like a root bound plant. The child may have moved past a certain amount of protection needed from the parent, but the parent has not quite become aware of this new stage of growth. The child then becomes “root bound”, feeling entangled and matted, like s/he cannot grow past the point s/he is at.
This is not a permanent problem that cannot be fixed. Most often the parent only wants what is best for his/her child and once made aware of the situation, can help the child feel able to grow again by figuratively “loosening the roots around the outer edge of the root ball”. This may mean stretching the parent’s trust just a bit to give the child a chance to experience growth and the parent can then see the beauty began to emerge again in the child’s continual expansion.
A hard thing to do, but necessary. I found the same principle to be true in management: stretching trust to stimulate growth.
well, it may be true, but it isn’t working well here. every time we give a little, we are having our trust broken…hope this is just “growing pains” but I think it indicates something more…
To some extent, we’re often afraid to allow our children to move on. Partly, I guess we’re used to protecting them, but in so many ways I think we’re protecting ourselves, keeping our comfortable world just as it is. I like Montucky’s comment.
Malcolm
thanks for stopping by Malcolm. it is indeed hard to do, and you are right, to some extent we are trying to protect ourselves, our world as we know it. It is such a bittersweet experience to let our kids go/grow…
I always enjoy both yours and Montucky’s comments
Finally, I’ve stopped being lazy long enough to put Peregrine Online, Sowing Seeds, and Montana Outdoors in my blogroll at communati. (You’re already in my WordPress blogroll.)
Both of you are doing such wonderful blogging, I wish I knew how to tell the world about your sites.
Malcolm
thanks so much, always appreciate a kind word!
you have some great blogs as well. nice to know I’ve made your “honor roll”