One of the most important things I have learnt in life is that if you do not have a strong foundation to build your life on everything around you will crumble. This foundation is layed when we are young children with the morals and standards that we receive from our parents. This gives us as parents a great responsibility to teach and guide our children and I do believe that there are some of us out there who do not realise the responsibility involved. It is almost like we are handing our children the blue print and building instructions to build them a future when they are bigger.

When they grow up however it is their decision whether they are going to use the blueprint or not, and then if they are going to listen to advice or not. There are so many of us who are blaming our parents for the way we were brought up. It is their fault that we made the wrong choices, but if you sit back and look at your life for a moment one sometimes realises that they gave us the blueprint and we were the ones who changed it. We also like to please our parents and sometimes choose the careers they selected for us just to find out that we are not happy and that a big pay check is not always great if we are miserable in the work that we do.

My parents were both teachers, but my dad hated his job and he always told me that if I go into teaching he will disinherit me. So what did I do I went to study law and soon realised that, that was not quite what I had in mind. I was struggling with the whole concept but getting a big pay check when I became a big shot lawyer kept me going. There was just one little problem my goody consciousness kept on telling me that I was making a mistake. One day I went to see a lady from church and we started having a conversation. I was studying part time at that stage and was looking out for a job closer to home. She them told me that they required an Afrikaans teacher at school. She knew my parent and that both of them were in the same profession. I told her that I cannot teach and then she looked me in the eyes and told me it is in my blood. I was born with it. My mother had a great reputation in the teaching profession. I took up the challenge and the courage and went to see the headmaster. He interviewed me and a few days later I received a phone call that he is happy and will give me an opportunity to teach at the school.

I found the career I was good at and I loved it. Because I loved my job I did not mind giving working long and hard hours. I could not wait to get to school in the mornings, and the fact that I disappointed my dad did not matter that much. My dad was not disappointed in me at all when I eventually got the courage together to tell him that I was teaching, because he could see a twinkle in my eye and a change I my life.

If I had no blue print in my life and I did not build my life on the morals and standards that I received from my parents I probably would not have succeeded in life, and I am not saying that I agree with everything they do, we cross swords very often about certain things, but what I do is also use the thing that I fail in to teach me something. And because I am willing to take life as a learning experience I gain a lot of value and my foundation are getting stronger and stronger every day. I get so upset with my brother when he blames my parent for the position he is in. They just gave him the blueprint and he had to lay and build the foundation, and although we as parents have a great influence on the lives of our children and we are responsible for them and their up bridging we must also allow them to work for what they want instead of just always taking responsibility for their mistakes. One can lead a horse to water but you cannot make the horse drink.

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