Do you believe that an amazing person is growing in your son or daughter, or are you freaking out that you're not doing a good job as a parent? Step away from your worries which are really all about you anyway and keep reading....

 

So often as parents we're tempted to place our own perceptions on our children's behavior. We tend to think that because we remember our experience as children or as students, we know what they're up to. We forget that we are parents with our own hopes for our children, and our own fears, and that this will always filter how we see situations.

 

It is human nature for us to associate our children's behavior with who we are as parents. It's true that our children look to us for guidance and want to please us. However, each child is his or her own person, too. Each child has his or her own way of being in the world and we have the privilege of helping each child discover who God created him or her to be.

 

We get to help with the unfolding, the growing, the learning, the becoming. And we also need to get out of the way sometimes, step back and try to better understand and study what our child needs. Really try to stay open and learn more. We will want to analyze and fix, and our sense of the unknown will push us to diagnose and determine what's wrong. Try to stay open and learn more. Try to resist labeling your child or taking personally what's transpiring.

 

Parenting is not the same as producing outcomes and that will feel odd for us who believe we can control our outcomes in life with enough hard work and talent. Not the same process with helping people grow. This is not efficient work. There are not easy answers or directions. We have to be willing to practice some healthy detachment and trust that God is there in the growing process.

 

Are we willing to partner with God, take some time to listen in prayer, remember that our love for our child is greater than our worries? If we can do this, often clarity and openness to learn more about how to best care for our child comes into focus. No easy fix but a deeper trust and calm that all will be well because God is at work in our child's life.

 

If worry and judgment are clouding the joy of parenting your kids, you're missing all the help God is sending your way. Maybe you stubbornly believe that you are the only person who can help your child grow. Figure out what you're putting in the way of seeing and using all the good surrounding how this gift of life can thrive.

 

Trust,

Ms. Kim Cavnar, Principal