There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues… are created, strengthened and maintained.
– Winston Churchill
The holidays are drawing closer, and that means it’s time to finish up your shopping, trim your tree, and maybe throw some tinsel on it? Tinsel was a quick and inexpensive way to add glitter to your tree and make it sparkle. I know that our girls when they were little loved the sparkle of tinsel. Fast-forward, now tinsel is no longer one of the items I put on my tree. However, if it was real silver, that may be a different option.
Tinsel has its origins in the early 1600s in Nuremberg, Germany. People would use thin strands of silver in their Christmas tree to reflect the candlelight. Back in that time, people used real candles in their trees. Silver was expensive and having strands of silver in your tree was a status symbol. It meant that you had money to burn, perhaps literally since they also had real candles in their trees. However, over the years tinsel has fallen out of fashion and not many people use tinsel any more.
Just as tinsel evolved from being made from silver, to lead foil and finally a plastic that is not environmentally friendly, our perspective on the use of tinsel changed. It is now harder to find tinsel. The comparison is that we are constantly learning, evolving and our perspective on a subject changes as we gain knowledge and wisdom on the subject. It is important that we have a growth mindset, that we are focused on growing.
As a parent it is important to keep an open mind with our teenagers. To understand that they are growing and changing. That we as a parent are there to help them to navigate their changes and help them grow into young productive citizens in our community.