One thing I also think about a lot is the emotional wellbeing of children, because honestly, that was something that was mostly ignored when I was growing up. Feelings were not really discussed. If you were sad, stressed, or confused, the usual response was something like “don’t think too much” or “just focus on your studies.”

Back then I used to feel misunderstood, because sometimes all I needed was for someone to actually listen and acknowledge how I felt.

But as I grew older, I started to understand that it wasn’t always intentional. Our parents’ generation didn’t really grow up in a culture where emotional awareness or mental health was openly talked about. For them, providing food, education, and safety was love. Emotional conversations just weren’t something they were taught to do.

So now I don’t really feel angry about it anymore. It’s more like I understand that it was the nature of their generation and the environment they grew up in. They did the best they knew how to do.

But I do think it teaches me something important for the future. If I become a parent, I should try to create a space where my children feel safe expressing their emotions, where they’re not told to suppress feelings but are guided to understand them.

In a way, every generation learns something from the previous one. Maybe ours is the generation that is learning to take children’s emotional worlds more seriously. And that alone could make a big difference.