Recognizing my parents

This post is my contribution to the September 2026 IndieWeb Carnival topic "Parenting", hosted by winther: https://winther.sysctl.dk/indieweb-carnival-september-2026-parenting/ My parents are good people, and I think about this often. About how lucky I am to have had a childhood free from abuse, trauma, or neglect. To have had an adolescence where I was encouraged, supported, and redirected towards interests and passions that have stayed with me into adulthood. In this life I have been blessed in many ways, and nowhere is this more apparent than with my family and especially with my parents. My parents accomplished what I imagine most good parents hope for: to create a foundation for their children's future that is better than what they themselves were given. My dad is of the generation where corporeal punishment was very much his childhood experience: he was beaten routinely, and in those days nobody though anything was particularly wrong with this. I can remember being spanked once,…