The moment a child is born, the dependency of the child commences. At this early stage, the child appears to be helpless as everything the child needs is administered by the parent. All the children need do is to beacon for their help by crying out to their hearing. Sometimes this can be confusing, as the cry does not really give a clear indication of what they really want. This situation creates an atmosphere of closeness between the child and the parent.

As time proceeds in life, the role of the parent to the child takes a new dimension. Before now, bathing, feeding, and putting on of clothing are all done by the parent. But all these changes with time. The child starts taking responsibility for his bathing, eating, wearing clothes, washing dishes, and so on. This still does not rule out the relevance of the parents to the child. The child still has to depend on the parent for financial related issues like food, shelter, clothing, medicals, transportation, etc.

A new phase surfaces again when the child appears to be having that feeling of independence. This feeling usually comes from the awareness that the parent has a little or no financial responsibility for them. Everything that has to do with his financial needs – foods, accommodation, clothing, and other personal needs- is being taken care of by the child. Despite this new development, a child still gets to the point where he/she finds itself in a dilemma and will have no other option but to run to the parent for solace. Every child, no matter how financially stable they are, gets to that point. This usually, is a result of the child needing the parent’s experience, which the child lacks at the moment, in the tackling of the situations. Circumstances like the decision to marry, inability to handle marriage challenges, sometimes career issues, and other tougher situations would warrant this to happen.

At the point where the child has gotten all the experience he needs from the parent to be totally independent, the parent still has one more thing to unveil to the child at old age. The child, though not very close as before, start observing what it takes to manage the old age stage. At the point of death, the parent sends an indirect reminder to the child. That someday, the child will get old and die too. This urges the child to get prepared in every way necessary for that period.

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