When I think of the word inheritance several things come to my mind, money, property. a house, and personal items.  Sometimes I think about a bumper sticker I occasionally see on cars around here,  it says, “I am spending my children’s inheritance”.  In other words, what I usually think of when it comes to the word inheritance is material things.  Tangible items that can be owned, sold or fought over.

Today, I started thinking about the intangible things that our children inherit from us.  Body type, personality traits, facial features, and diseases, are just a few of these.   Obviously some of the intangible things that they can inherit are more desirable than others. Big, beautiful eye lashes (which my brother got) are more desirable than ending up with a replica of the big, hairy mole that mom has on her nose.  There is a benefit to this type of inheritance, most likely no one will fight over who gets what, like they would over who gets dad’s toenail collection.

Unless I win the lottery, my daughter will probably not inherit much in the way of material things from me.  She will get a few, very special, sentimental items, but nothing of any real value.   As far as her intangible inheritance goes, she has already received a sizable portion of it.  I wish I could say all of what she has inherited is good, but that is simply not true.  She is stuck with a gene pool she partially inherited from me, as well as personality and behavioral traits she received from the examples I displayed in front of her.

Some of what she has inherited is being at a higher risk for developing diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and restless leg syndrome.  She even has a higher chance of developing depression.  She already exhibits symptoms of the anxiety I modeled in front of her (starting when she was very young), causing her to be painfully shy at times. Her inheritance also includes migraines, skin that is easy to sunburn, and a gift for sarcasm.

She inherited my love for books, staying up late, reading with a flash light just like I used to do.  She got her beautiful, red, curly hair from both sides of her family.  Her annoying stubbornness definitely came from her father, there is no doubt in my mind where her intelligence comes from.  Her ability to roll her eyes around in her head when she is annoyed seems to be an inherited trait that the women on my side of the family all seem to possess.

Her inheritance has included a good sense of humor, a caring nature, and a love of animals. She has my nose and her father’s chin, and has received some tall gene, because at thirteen she is almost taller than me.

The things I would like her to inherit in the future are a strong sense of self worth, the ability to be open about her feelings, the strength to never give up and the knowledge of how much she is loved.

What is your child/ren’s inheritance?