Parents can teach values.
They can offer opportunities.
They can share experience.
They can warn children about mistakes they once made themselves.
But they cannot live another person’s life.
At some point, love must include allowing independence.
That can mean supporting interests a parent never expected.
It can mean listening to opinions that differ from one’s own.
It can mean allowing a young person to experiment with identity, style, ambitions, and beliefs as
Unconditional love does not require unconditional agreement.
Instead, it creates the security that says: even when we disagree, this relationship still matters.
For young people navigating a world filled with outside judgment, that security can be enormously meaningful.
The Chapters Ahead
Jennifer Lopez’s children are no longer the tiny figures once photographed beside their famous mother.
They are growing up.
And with each passing year, their lives increasingly become their own stories.
