Dear Dahn:

You wrote: “I grew up in a family environment where I learnt to be giving to others but never learnt how to receive in return”-

-children are naturally giving, naturally eager to  please their parents. So I don’t think you learned to give. I think you naturally gave what you were able to give, as a child.

When a parent gives a child a smile, or a kind word, or a gift with love, that is, without asking anything in return, without telling the child she .. is not worthy of what was given- the child receives, naturally. She doesn’t learn to receive.

I was given things as a child, toys, clothes, things but there was a price tag on every thing I was given. After the giving, my mother said: look what I did for you, what I gave you, how hard I worked for what I gave you, and look how ungrateful you are, how badly you repaid me…

Did you have any such experience as a child?

anita