Do you want your child to trust you?
To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
George MacDonald, Scottish poet, theologian and Christian minister  (1824 – 1905)
When they are little our children trust us instinctively.
We retain their trust by being trustworthy.
Fortunately it’s not necessary for us to behave in a trustworthy fashion every time for our children to keep putting their trust in us. They forgive us our errors in judgement, our lapses in manner, our shortcomings in skill. Over and over again our children graciously overlook our grosser handicaps in this business of being a parent.
But there is a line we can cross. And no-one can say for sure where it is. That depends on the individual personality and temperament of the child who will ultimately judge their parent.
As long as we are “good enough†our children will love us. But we need to do better than that for them to trust us.
If we want our children to trust us, then we must trust them.
Like everything else that matters, our children learn from US how – or even whether – to trust. If we place our trust in them, then they will learn to trust themselves. And they will continue to trust us.
I’m not advocating being naïve. But I trust you know that!  And to be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
