We’re not tyrants. We didn’t force them to think like us, to act or dress a certain way. We didn’t choose their partner like many cultures used to. We didn’t apprentice them in a trade. We didn’t pressure them into this religion or that way of life.

Our kids were free.

Right?

Maybe not.

It has been said that “without awareness there is no choice.” What that means is that ​your kids can’t possibly become who they are​ or what they like if they are only exposed to a fraction of the world.

If they have only heard of a couple career paths, how can they possibly know that the one they chose was actually the right one for them? If they’ve only spent time around people like your family or people in your area, ​how can they honestly know they’ve found the right community for them​, the place they actually fit in? What are the chances that our faith or our political party is the one that—if they’d been equally and earnestly introduced to another—is the one they’d choose?

Our job is to expand their horizons, to expose them to stuff—maybe even stuff we don’t understand or like—​to give them awareness​. So they can actually choose. So they can make informed decisions. So they can find the life that’s actually best for them and not just one coincidentally very close to ours.