by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: April 28, 2009

Parents shape our dreams whether they intend to or not. Every word and every action of a parent influences a child, especially in the formative years. A single sentence or action can shape a child's life well into adulthood.

Because children are so naturally open and because parents are god and goddess to their children, everything in their relationship with their children has a huge impact. Sometimes children interpret situations or words incorrectly and yet it still shapes their future.

Sometimes children's dreams are limited because they come to believe they are flawed or not as good as other children. Adopted children often grow up with stunted dreams, regardless of the love showered on them by their adoptive parents. It can lodge in a child's mind, as soon as they learn they are adopted, that their birth mother didn't want them. This can become globalized to "No one wants me" and/or "Something is wrong with me."

A woman in her 60s told me that she was being held by her mother when her new little brother was brought into the room. The mother said, "There's my beautiful brown-eyed boy." The little girl had blue eyes. She immediately felt that having blue eyes made her inferior. As an adult she married a brown-eyed man and prayed for brown-eyed children. Even in her 60s, knowing that as a little girl she had misinterpreted the situation, she still felt very emotional about it.

So parents need to be very aware of the impact they have on their children from a very young age. When punishing a child it is important that they understand that their behavior is being punished and not them. Parents need to be careful when they are upset, tired, or depressed, that their mood doesn't infect their children. Because children believe that they are the center of the universe, they think that your mood and behavior always has something to do with them.

Parents should think of their statements and behavior toward their children as powerful hypnotic suggestions or affirmations (or disaffirmations). The things you say to your children are taken in as Truth and not the manifestation of a bad day or some upset that has nothing to do with the child.

More specifically, when children talk about their dreams, they should be treated respectfully and the child should be generally told that they can do anything they want, even if they want to be a cowboy, superhero, or president of the world at the time. The specific dream is less important than the message that they can do anything they

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