As a parent, you can empower yourself in the hardest situation. It empowers your child.

She's worked so hard and she's accomplished so much, it's amazing.

No matter what we're going through, we're always focused on her developmental progress.

When you're a parent you find yourself looking at the unknown that is your child, trying to find a piece of yourself inside her, because sometimes that is what it takes to claim.

Why isn't there a commandment to "honor thy children" or at least one to "not abuse thy children"? The notion that we must honor our parents causes many people to bury their real feelings and set aside their own needs in order to have a relationship with people they would otherwise not associate with. Parents, like anyone else, need to earn respect and honor, and honoring parents who are negative and abusive is not only impossible but extremely self-abusive. Perhaps, as with anything else, honoring our parents starts with honoring ourselves. For many adult children, honoring themselves means not having anything to do with one or both of their parents.

If it's your child, it's different. You don't care about those things. It's so minor. You become a parent and nothing else really matters.