I was listening to this great podcast by Tara Brach and she mentioned this practice that I believe is a great lesson for kids and parents. Whenever we are overtaken by blame we can ask our children, ask ourselves to think of 3 reasons why that might be. For example, “so and so didn’t come to my part, they must not like me”. 3 reasons could be they are sick, they had an appointment, they didn’t have a ride. What this practice does is open the mind to possibilities instead of blame. Because blame easily turns into resentment. What a great practice to be using with our kids, with our own interactions!
DIY baby guard
For less than $20 we built this fireplace bumper! We used pipe insulation from Home Depot which has the adhesive already in it! Less than a 20min project for less than $20- doesn’t get much better than that!
Look for it in our children
“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true. ”
-Thomas Merton
Look for the good in you and in our children. The good always shines through. I lean on this idea often. If you wake up every day believing this and following this idea you will be able to see the good in others. If we let it that good will transform the way you feel about yourself and about parenting.
Shouting from the rooftop!
Ok I may have found the best parenting hack of all time! Well maybe not but it’s pretty darn good. If your anything like me I love cloudy summer days because that means less sunscreen for the kids!!!! Well I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I was putting on my makeup one morning with my makeup sponge. I ended up carrying it with me around the house and saw my child’s sunscreen bottle at the same time…POOF! Magic happened. I ran over to my 3 year old and 10 month old and said ok sunscreen time. I just put the face sunscreen on the sponge and applied. OMG! It made this dreadful task super easy. My 3 yo thought I was putting makeup on him so he thought that was pretty cool and my littlest thought it felt good. And no more white faces from not being able to rub it in all the way. Now we don’t leave home without them-I May actually miss summer now. You better believe I am shouting this idea from the rooftop!
Look at this mom!
How many times a day does your child say look at this mom! Mom look! Look what I can do! Watch this! Are you watching this!? Kids love getting our attention and love sharing some “interesting ” things with us. My child today started screaming “mom mom come see this! Are you coming? Can you see this!?” I’m thinking oh no what is happening? I run into the room and he is super excited because he balanced hangers on his toes!!!! Yup!
I have heard parents say “you don’t have to show me everything” or “that’s cool honey” and not even look. I understand that they can appear to be demanding. But moments like these are opportunities and invitations! We have a chance to understand what our children think is amazing to them and they want to share with us! I encourage you to assess your reaction throughout the day with your little ones “demands”. Every day tell yourself I am going to be the type of mom who looks at these moments as opportunities, not demands. Get in there! See what happens when you fully engage.
Thank You I Love You
Thanks for joining me! I am so excited to share my first post with you. I hope all my readers can find a fresh start and get rid of the baggage we as parents tend to carry around: bad days, bad feelings, anxiety, regret, shame, frustration, unfinished lists. It goes on and on. Some advice that I have heard time and time again is “you are enough” I have been guilty of saying this about myself as a parent. So what’s wrong with this statement? Well, is that what you think about yourself…just enough? Would you tell your best friend or your children this? “I raise you to become…well-enough” NO WAY! So stop telling yourself this. We must stop and remember to be kind to ourselves, to not let our internal dialogue be hurtful. Stop and think, “would I say that to my best friend?” If the answer is no…then stop saying it to yourself. Every morning wake up and B-R-E-A-T-H and tell yourself I am a Superhuman! You are more than enough. You are everything. You are everywhere. You are always changing. You are Super Human.
How do I do this you ask? I often wondered this myself. Once I stopped letting my anxiety control me and started treating it as just another emotion I began to realize it doesn’t define me. I am not anxious…I simply feel anxiety as I feel sad,angry, or frustrated at times. I also realized the importance of love. Have you ever stopped to say “thank you I love you” to yourself? Before listening to the following exercise I had never told myself that! And wow was it a game changer! Hey self… I Love You! You better bet I now tell my kids to pause, breath, look within and say “thank you I love you”. It is my pleasure to introduce to you an amazing woman Samantha Skelly. I’ll let her magic take it from here.
Parenting BIG 