It's a Boy!

It’s a Boy! ! !

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you . . .”  Jeremiah 1:5 Before I created Daniel Kreshky  for Baggage burdens., I already knew he would frustrate Jill.

It's a boy! It's a boy!

Jill wants to be a very good mother. No, a better mother than her mother was to her. Because Jill was naturally drawn to her mother, she expects to be the most loved parent in her family. Daniel is designed to frustrate that goal, not deliberately but as a consequence of Jill’s ambition to be closer to her son than Joseph is.

In the years before Daniel starts school Jill loves and cares for her son. She’s the center of his attention. A couple of years before Daniel starts school the bond between father and son grows stronger. The seed of jealousy finds fertile soil in Jill’s heart.

Dissension between mother and son finds no expression until Daniel has attended school for six years. Then Jill starts homeschooling Amber, Daniel’s sister. The mother and daughter relationship is very close. Thinking that teaching her son at home will build a stronger bond between them, Jill tries to pull Daniel out of the parochial church school. Her determined effort fails but succeeds in driving a wedge between the two of them.

As Daniel grows older, that wedge widens. Amber’s praises her mother’s teaching. It aggravates Daniel. To guarantee that he can stay at the school where all his friends are, Daniel studies hard and achieves honors. While Daniel participates in the school’s social activities, he is inadvertently exposed to the community’s criticism of Jill for rebuffing their private educational system. Their talk stains his view of his mother.

Pressure to conform to his mother’s wishes increases when Sarah, Daniel’s second sister and Matthew, Daniel’s brother, also take their schooling at home. A rebellious weed grows in Daniel. Expression of his antagonistic spirit is limited by Joseph’s guidance and support.  

Daniel marries his high school sweetheart. She happens to be the daughter of a woman who is very critical of Jill. Jill wonders if she forced Daniel out of her house like her father forced her out of his house. Joseph’s moderating effect on Daniel ceases when Joseph leaves Jill. Daniel blames his mother for the failure of the marriage. His hostility blooms. He wants nothing to do with her.

Once a child leaves home, is it possible for a parent to win their heart?

How can one create a strong bond between father and son? Is it natural or deliberate? The next blog explores the development of the bond between Joseph and Daniel in Baggage burdens.