[if I had a label for "church stuff", this post would go under church stuff]
So...we've all had plenty of BGR (Boy-Girl Relationship) talks at church and plenty of BGR-based discussions in camp dormitories, in Bible studies, while generally hanging out, why you may even have had your youth group leader unsuspectingly spring a BGR talk on you while drinking coffee at a social...but anyway, my point is, BGRs have been done to death. Don't get me wrong, they are good to have once in a while (I mean, we're having one at Glue this term, which I think will be a good thing), but we are always doing BGRs.
What about PCRs? No, not Polymerase Chain Reactions (for those of you who know what that is), but Parent-Child Relationships. Cos you know, I know some people who have really good relationships with their parents, but then I also know a lot of people who don't. It's not necessarily that it's a bad or antagonistic relationship, but can just be a bit...indifferent? Better? Anyway I'm sure at least some of you get what I'm talking about.
We had a few parents/kids forum things at Glue ages and ages ago....but yeah, that was ages and ages ago. And I'm sure we've had sermons on passages about husbands/wives/elders/parents/children and what not...but yeah, I dunno, they've never really stuck.
So recently (i.e. about half an hour ago while eating lunch) I've been thinking up burning questions such as these:
- How should you relate to Christian parents? (I mean, on a practical level, what should it look like?)
- How should you relate to non-Christian parents?
- Does 'not fighting' with your parents constitute a 'good' relationship with them? Or should you be striving for more?
- What if you have a better relationship with one parent than the other?
- [In an Asian immigrant culture] How do you maintain relationships with "astronaut" parents? (sorry, direct translation from a weird Cantonese term - anyway it means the situation when typically the dad goes back to Asia to work and only sees the kids in Australia a few times a year)
- What if your parents are divorced?
- Do only children have a different relationship with their parents than children with siblings? What if your parents are overprotective? (What if your parents are Asian? lol)
- Actually, yeah, what if your parents are Asian/ have a different culture...and yeah, various issues stemming from that...
- What about (arrrgh!) ministers' kids? Missionaries' kids?? (OK, is it just me, or do people have certain stereotypes about what these families should be like?)
- Who should the parents love more, their spouse or their kids? (hmmm!)
- How should you relate to your parents once you move out of home/ get married?
- And from a Christian parent's perspective: how should you relate to kids who fall away?
But yes, PCRs! Because who else here thinks it's relevant and is sick of BGRs? (OK, I could be alone on this point here...)
