The Marginalian · People & society

Kahlil Gibran's Wisdom on Parenting

Kahlil Gibran, in his 1923 classic "The Prophet," offered profound advice on raising children, emphasizing their individuality and independence.

Gibran's poetic response to a mother seeking parenting guidance states that children are "the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself." They come through parents but do not belong to them.

Parents can offer love but not their own thoughts, as children possess their own minds. Bodies can be housed, but souls belong to the future and cannot be controlled.

The advice encourages parents not to mold children into their own likeness, as life moves forward. Parents are likened to bows, and children to arrows sent forth by an archer towards an infinite path.

Parents' role is to be a stable bow, bending with might for the arrows to fly swiftly and far, finding gladness in this act.

The text contrasts this with the modern world's treatment of children, questioning the worth of bringing new life into troubled times and highlighting the responsibility involved.

It frames raising a child as acknowledging their unique existence as an "unrepeatable miracle."

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