The ways in which individuals take responsibility for themselves and others
Responsibility is a very strong word. Holding yourself accountable for your actions and others at the same time is not an easy task. It may seem easy, less painful or less demanding to not take responsibility for yourself. It’s more comfortable but there’s always a price to pay. When you don’t take responsibility for yourself or others that are important to you, you are giving away your personal power. It is extremely complicated for parents. Parents have to take accountability for themselves and their children. Mothers play a bigger role in taking care of us and shaping us into a grown individual. Mothers are more emotionally attached to their child. If their child does anything wrong, they always tend to blame their behavior on themselves and the way they have raised their children. Women forget to take in account their own self-interests; instead they worry about their family. This is perfectly portrayed in a short story by Budge Wilson called ‘The Leaving’. In this story, Elizabeth, a helpless wife, takes responsibility for the chauvinistic behavior of her children and her husband. In an attempt to change her lifestyle, Elizabeth stand up to her husband after 19 years; she showers her daughter with opportunities and tries to alter the behaviors of her sons and grandsons.
Elizabeth lived a life of a typical suppressed housewife. She lived on a farm unaware of the outside world. She sat at home all her life trying to satisfy the needs of her husband, Lester and her 6 children. Elizabeth never got the appreciation she deserved, all she got was more and more duties which eventually became a burden in her life. Elizabeth’s outlook on her life started to alter when she read the book ‘The Feminine Mystique”. This book gave Elizabeth a lot of courage and hope that she is not alone in this world. The revelations of other women going through similar circumstances enlarged