Family is everything and it is the most important social unit where parents and their children share a lot in common. Parents desire to give the best to their children in terms of gift, care and values but what will happen if a father and a mother are very wealthy but decide to live as poor people and train their children as poor children hiding their wealth from the children? It will shock anyone and beats one's imagination when he grows up only to find out that his parents carefully concealed the fact that they were wealthy from their child. Let me talk about what my reaction will be if I get to find out later that my parents are rich but chose to hide it from me all through my childhood to adulthood.
INITIAL SHOCK AND DISBELIEF:
It is normal to have a level of shock on discovering this because I have been made to believe that I am from a poor home it will make me question their motive for this and I will wonder what other things they may be hiding from me. I will re-examine my trust in them because their action will make me question the trust I have in them, I will feel betrayed because as parents I hold them in high esteem and I will feel that if they really cared and valued me as their child then why conceal such information from me?
I will feel that they raised me up under an environment of deception as everything I went through and was told was not true after all.
I WILL TAKE TIME TO REFLECT ON THE THINGS I MISSED IN CHILDHOOD:
Agreed I may not have knowledge of my parents vast world but the memories of the kind of life I lived as a child as compared to what it should have been will affect me on discovering this. Although my parents are rich but they too would have sacrificed some pleasures to live a modest life, for them to choose to live that way will make me reflect deeply on the sacrifices they may have made for the course they believed in. In life there is no way that someone can completely hide some facts because in this case there may be people who know their real wealth and may have addressed them or treated them as wealthy people even though my parents tried to suppress it. I may not have understood all that happened but in my reflections I will try to connect the dots and every piece of the puzzle.
I WILL TRY TO KNOW WHY:
My parents love me dearly and want the best for me, so I will do my best to know why they did what they did and what was their motivation for doing so.
Could it be that they wanted me to grow up and see life the way it really is without the distractions of wealth? Could it be that they wanted me to grow up as every other child facing the challenges they all faced so as to develop a sense of self-reliance and learn some practical values on how money is made and managed? Could it be that they have once seen or witnessed what exposure to and dependence on wealth has cost some families?
My parents are the only ones that can provide these answers. To get the answers I will initiate a heart to heart discussion with my parents in the presence of a trusted relative who knows them well or my siblings letting them know how disappointed I am and then get answers to the above questions and much more. I will like to know the present value of their wealth or worth and their plans for it as it relates to me and my siblings. Everything may not be revealed in one day so my engagement with them will be a continuous one.
A TIME TO FORGIVE:
No matter how bad I feel about their hiding this fact from me, they still remain my parents and they cannot be replaced by anyone. Harboring resentment towards them will lead to no good,so I will need to forgive them. Forgiving them means that I understand the complexities of life and that I am mature enough to be able to manage the inheritance I now have. The energy I would have put into keeping resentment will be channeled towards personal development so as to be better equipped to confront the challenges of managing such vast wealth. Reconciliation will open a new page in our lives and make me know more about my parents, their background and what they stand for.
CONCLUSION:
The shock and discovery will affect me and change a lot about me and the way I see life. With this new knowledge, I will be armed and transformed so as to be able to put my newfound inheritance to good use. The answers I get as to my parents motives and my willingness to let go of resentment will make us come out of this shock strong and united.