What is a Parent?

Parents of children born with illnesses and diseases often aren’t seen as the heroes they truly are. To me they are the epitome of what the true meaning of a parent really is.
Webster’s dictionary defines parent as a person who is a father or mother, a person who has a child. They define parenting as: the raising of a child. I believe sometimes the simple definition of a word clearly misses the true meaning or action of a word. Let’s take parent and parenting as an example, I think we can agree there are numerous ways of parenting and most involve more than just raising a child, although some would argue that the word raising implies the differences. I disagree and you will understand why shortly. Ok how about a parent being a father or mother, you already know where I’m going with this one, there are plenty of fathers and mothers that are not parents in reality. In my opinion conceiving and birthing a child doesn’t make you a parent. I view being a parent and parenting as one and the same. To me they are defined by action, putting the well-being of a child first, making sacrifices for the long-term benefit to the child, caring enough to properly disciple and nurture the child in a way that allows them to develop into an individual with morals and respect for those around them. Allowing them to explore their interests with proper guidance. This and so much more is what most parents of children with life long illness do. Long story short being a parent and parenting goes far beyond a definition in a dictionary.