Wholehearted Parenting

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Again Brene Brown’s book “Daring Greatly” got me! The chapter on Wholehearted Parenting right away just in the chapter description reached out to me, and I found myself excitedly saying “YES!!! That’s it!” The statement that reached out to me was this:

“Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting. In terms of teaching our children to dare greatly in a “never enough” culture, the question isn’t so much “Are you parenting the right way?” as it is: “Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?”

I just kept re-reading the last line, breaking it down into chunks, “Are You”…am I? “The adult you want”…I hope so, but am I? “Your child to grow up to be?”…I want to be!

We became parents much later than the “normal” age as society puts out there. We like to say we have more patience at being parents, but in reality, it really is hard! We as parents are shaping these little people and we all want them to be the best little people who become the best adults. Parenting is the most personal journey one can take. It forces you to see where you yourself need work. It makes you think, often times than not nightly, about your day, replaying things that happened and telling yourself “tomorrow I will ____________”.

So I plan to follow the question that stared at me on that page a few weeks back:

“Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?”

I will have days where I am not parenting the way I want my child to grow up, I know this! I’m human! I will give myself the ok to fail at times, I will show myself patience just as I show my children when I stumble.

I am learning 3’ish years into this new role, that parenting isn’t a “one size fits all” and boy, am I glad I finally figured that out!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some snuggles and cartoon watching with my favorite Little’s to get back to.

XO

L