Via Starwars.com:
MEET CHARACTERS WHOSE QUALITIES AND APPROACH TO LIFE CAN TEACH US VALUABLE LESSONS.
Are you a parent with children who love the galaxy far, far away? Parenting Padawans is an exclusive StarWars.com column that discusses the various questions and factors that come into play when introducing your younglings to Star Wars.
Being a parent is hard. The moment your child is born is like a needle-scratch-on-the-record moment. There’s a sudden realization that you’re now responsible for a life that’s completely separate from yourself. It’s a little frightening.
It’s up to you to teach your kids valuable lessons, the difference between right and wrong, how to be social and interact with other people, how to resist the lure to the dark side, and — ultimately — how to be beautiful individuals able to walk through life on their own.
Thankfully, though, we have Star Wars to guide us. (I mean, really, what did parents do before ’77?) The characters that populate the Star Wars galaxy are incredibly diverse. I’m not talking about gender or ethnic diversity, but rather diversity in what the characters represent. Many are archetypes (think of the classic hero or villain, and odds are you’re also thinking of a Star Wars character), and most can be pared down to one or two emotions or traits that overwhelmingly define who they are.
Real people, though, are a composite of so much more. They’re astonishingly complex, and making sure your kids exhibit the best qualities and develop into decent human beings is no small task.
As parents, we try to be good role models and teachers for our kids, but in the end, it’s not about what we teach. It’s about how we act. What are the qualities that define who we are? And what are the most important qualities we want to encourage in our children?
So, like I said, thank goodness for Star Wars and its ability to shine a light in the scary darkness that every parent feels (at one point or another). The following characters represent the best qualities I hope to instill in my own kids. They represent the best of what we can be, and they’re great role models.
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