What do children know about their parents? I mean, really know about them.

The thought was sparked recently when I mentioned to my 24-year-old daughter that I couldn’t wait for the weekend so I could begin to read the stack of books on my desk.

“Really? You’re into it?” she asked.

“Yes, why?”

“I saw a Post-it on top of the books. I thought you were miserable about it.”

This is what she saw…

I had written myself a note, a reminder, to buy Stephen King’s book, Misery.

How often do misunderstandings like this happen? How often do parents transmit a message that is not true?

Years ago, I wrote about my 8-year-old son asking, “Mommy, when did you turn Jewish?” in an essay with that same name. Throughout his life, he heard my husband and I debate how religion should be expressed and explored in our home, and as a result, my child did not understand where I stood. He did not understand based on what he’d heard that I’d always been Jewish, and that I had a strong sense of Judaism. And so on Purim, when we baked homemade hamentash, he was confused, and asked me that question.

Just as easily, he could’ve wondered to himself, not asked the question at all, and not given me the opportunity to explain.

Over and over again, parents are assured (or warned) that if we are ourselves, our children will know who we are, whether we want them to or not.

But what if they get conflicting messages?

What if they only know  part of a story?

I spent a lot of time researching this topic because now that I have adult children, I want them to know me, the real me, not some fake version, a projected, fantasized view that keeps me stuck in a specific role. I want them to know me with all my flaws and strengths and everything else that makes me human.

But there was nothing. I mean nothing. I could not find one article about this topic. No matter what sequence of words I strung together, every article I found focused on parents knowing their children, and not the other way around.

I found articles titled:

What All Children Want Their Parents to Know, Relating to Adult Children and The Bill of Rights for Parents of Adults.

Of course, it’s important for parents to know their children or, at least, attempt to, especially if you are interested in an intimate relationship; but why is it so difficult, or undervalued or maybe even taboo for children to know their parents?

My kids think they know me — and to a large degree they do. But I think they, along with children around the globe, fill in the spaces with their own ideas, create their own narrative, project and assume.

I’d like to change that.

I think this blog post is my first step.