meaning of "only their parents"?

Question

I'm reading *When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us* by Jane Adams. In the introduction, she talks about who this book is addressed to:> ...here are the positive, life-affirming, burden-easing things you can> learn from the experiences of hundreds of parents of kids who've let> them down. That sounds like a self-centered way to describe those> parents and the choices their kids have made, doesn't? After all,> whose life is it, and who are we to judge how they should live it?> Just because they didn't finish school, or marry the right person ...> who are we to say they've failed? **Only their parents**, for whom> coming to terms with our adult children's limitations also means> facing our own. Although their names and the details of their lives> have been changed, they are as real as you and I, with real kids and> real disappointments...I'm confused about the part of "Only their parents". Is it the answer to the question "who are we to judge"? So the author is saying that only the parents of those kids can judge them? But it also seems the author is implying that parents do not have the rights to judge their kids. Can anybody explain the idea for me?

Answer 1

It sounds to me as if the author is saying that parents judge their kids' decisions--and thus, their perceived disappointments/faults--by their own. There is no standard disappointment meter for all parents, she says, but parents experience disappointments from their grown children because it makes them look at their own faults and misgivings.

I hope this helps!