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.
