Parents need not necessarily be the best person to confide in.

Recently, a young guy had relationship problems and he approached an aunt to help solve his problem. According to the story I heard, the girl concerned had three boy-friends and this guy who was very fond of her, felt left out at times. The uncertainty was putting some stress into him. So, he needed someone to confide in so as to reduce the stress through sharing and discussing.

Although his parents are quite close to him, he somehow preferred to reach out to the aunt. Perhaps, there may be some parents who would feel hurt that their son would chose some relative to discuss his problem. No matter how close parents may be to a child, we have to accept the fact that in love relationships, some young people prefer to let younger relatives know about them first. Perhaps, it is safer, more comfortable and easier to quietly relinguish whatever relationship should it ever fade away. There may be less need to explain. After all, a grown child may still have to face his parents everyday while relatives can be avoided for a while for things to cool down.

Therefore, parents should never regard such avoidance of revelation on such matters as an indication of disrespect to the parents concerned. Parents must not rave or rant upon discovery of such a matter from another source. They should respect the need for privacy on the part of their grown child.

Furthermore, parents should not reveal the fact that they know about the matter being discussed with a third party as long as the third party is not detrimental to the child's welfare. Parents should be thankful that the third party is around to assist their child and to privately give further developments to the parents. Be grateful that someone can help him out of his problems for it is also not the fault of this someone that the grown child decides to confide in her and search for a solution from her.

So long as a solution can be derived, parents ought to be happy that their child had somehow managed to jump out of another pothole in life and is safe. That ought to be the role of every parent; to see that their children are safe and developing well.