Responsibility for the family means love and protection but also giving free space and providing development opportunities.
The invisible bond of practiced familial love holds the family together.
Material security is, of course, a fundamental precondition, the framework that allows a family to feel well and to develop.
The responsibility of the family for the health of its individual members should be recognised and practiced primarily by the father and the mother.
Both parents serve as examples for their children and thus influence their later – healthy or unhealthy – lifestyle.
This does not only apply to smoking or the consumption of alcohol, which may be passed on as an unhealthy habit from parents to children.
Rather, it is the attitude towards health and responsibility for one’s own wellbeing, personal hygiene, the choice of food, the underlying criteria of that choice (where and how it was produced), and last but not least the preparation of this food, that matter most.
The entire eating culture, respect for the life of humans and animals alike, mindfulness towards nature and life as a whole, all this shapes the moral attitude and ethical outlook of human beings in their development from child to adult.
For this reason, a limited fasting session for parents, perhaps twice a year, is such a good educational experience for the entire family.
It is practiced health responsibility for the parents but also for all other family members, in particular the children.
“Mom and dad go fasting” is a strong message of exemplary responsibility for one’s own health.
Such a fasting session must, of course, be well-prepared. For the parents to benefit from this activity requires ease of mind.
In practice, this means that for the duration of the 8-day fasting programme family life must be organised in such a way that all familial responsibilities and tasks are assumed by reliable relatives or friends.
Mom and dad on a fasting course: It also offers the opportunity for old couples to break free from their routines and revive their partnership.
It is more than a joint project.
It includes mutual assistance in adversity, encouragement in critical moments, perhaps a helping hand with the clysters or the hot liver packages.
Our parents set the example, they stuck together in good and bad times, they cared for one another, they held hands, they massaged each others back, they gave a pat on the head, they were just there.