My Son and his wife just had their first baby and live closeby. Im grateful they appreciate having us in their lives. I baby sit a couple days a week for 2 hrs and they value us. My oldest daughter is single, living 1.5 hrs away in Atlanta. She has walked away from faith and is very vocal about political views that differ from ours. It makes it hard to be with her. She got angry at me 2 Christmas Eves ago, in our home, when we wanted to read the Christmas story from Luke 2. It was messy. I did not have the strength to engage her anger, and I went to bed early in tears. I have learned that "religion and politics" are Topics that cannot be discussed without Tension., So I try to avoid that. She is angry that I dont agree with her and I dont take an activist stand on hot issues. My Heart breaks for her...This divergence happened AFTER college when she started working for a Woke non profit in Atlanta. She is brilliant and articulate and can talk circles around me. She Owns an old home in a transitional neighborhood of ATL and always wants us to come help her to Fix-it jobs. My 2nd daughter in married with 5 kids 8 and under... Her home is chaos most of the time. I Love the grands and try to help as much a possible. I get blamed, when they act out. I've overstepped the boundaries in trying to parent them, and that has strained our relationship. I'm taking this class to learn how to accept without agreeing.... how to be present without pressuring. I didnt have a good role model for parenting adult children, so they is a NEW language of love for me.

@Catherine Hickem I would love to learn new ways to show love to my daughters. They see the world very differently since they are adults, than I do. I want to have genuine curiosity about their lives and their perspectives. And perhaps like Susan Maclean said, I can be "judgemental" or lack the ability to communicate acceptance, when I don't agree with them. That is something for me to deeply ponder. Acceptance doesn't mean agreement. I am grateful for this course and the dialog. Thank you for your thoughtful responses.

was this recorded? Feb 26?

@Katherine Evans What a beautiful response back from your son. so encouraging.

"The focus we need to prioritize is the relationship and not the issues that so often divide us. In a world of differences, it is easy for people to perceive them as a threat instead of an opportunity. We may not understand how our children shifted or switched in their thinking or beliefs and I know that is challenging on many levels. However, the question is this: Can you love your children whether you understand them or not?" It's easy for me to focus on the differences, instead of choosing CURIOSITY,.... my default is to go into judgement. I want so much, to develop a NEW MINDSET of CURIOSITY and ACCEPTANCE even when I don't agree with their viewpoint.