A friend of mine recently told me that she believes that before entering this world, we choose our parents. She believes that each one of us makes this choice, which could be for any number of self-serving or altruistic reasons.

What if we are responsible for choosing our parents? Then we'd have to reexamine the commonly accepted "wisdom" that we can't choose who our are parents or family are, that we are stuck with them and that our parents are all to blame for why we are so screwed up.

Perhaps you saw something in your parents primordially- you had hoped to learn from their life experience or to inherit a special talent. Perhaps you admired something about their personal character. Perhaps, it is your role to enlighten them in their journey of life, to help them work through certain unresolved, challenging issues.

It's something to ponder and that could profoundly change one's view of his or her life... or change one's perspective of the power dynamic in parent-child relationships.