How Do Your Children Help You Grow?
Have you ever stopped to think how you’ve grown since becoming a parent?
What have you learned?
How are you an even better person?
Because human children need more time than any other species to mature and live on their own, the time we spend raising our children is full of opportunities for our personal growth.
When my first child was a toddler, she loved being outside, picking up acorns, small sticks, roly poly bugs, and pine cones.
Walking with her made me spend more time outdoors and notice details like the texture of grass and the feeling of the wind. It was like rediscovering the world!
Seeing my daughter’s excitement helped me appreciate the beauty and importance of nature, a value I’ve kept ever since.
My naturally curious second child has a million questions about everything.
I don’t know all the answers, so we look them up.
I’ve learned to question things I always took for granted, discovered where American southern accents came from, learned how car engines work, and the list goes on. My child continues to make me more knowledgeable than I used to be!
Always inspiring to me is the persistence young children show when learning to walk.
They try, they fall down. We encourage them and they keep going. They don’t give up.
They fall and wobble until they get it! Their natural persistence is something I’ve recalled when going through tough times.
And then there are the challenging parenting situations we face:
Getting our children to listen, behave and make good decisions.
Parenting a strong willed child who seems like they’ll never give in.
Keeping our cool when we really want to yell.
Supporting our kids through illness and challenging times.
Trying to parent differently than our parents, when there are things we wished they had done differently.
In my own life and when I coach other parents, I’ve found that working through these challenges, especially when we feel stuck, offers some of our greatest opportunities for personal growth.
In the process of finding solutions, we can learn ways to:
Communicate that work not only with our children, but also with other people in our lives.
Take better care of ourselves (one solution that helped me stop yelling was to get more sleep!)
Heal wounds from our own childhood that have affected our self-esteem and our parenting, so that we have more happiness, confidence and peace.
Parenting is rich with opportunities to learn if we take advantage of them.
Here are two questions to help you think about your own personal growth.
1) How has/have your child(ren) helped you grow as a parent and person?
2) What are the challenging situations you are having with your child(ren) where finding solutions would both help them and provide you with opportunities for personal growth?
Take the Next Step
Parenting is a journey filled with challenges and triumphs, and you don’t have to navigate it alone. Every parent deserves guidance tailored to their unique needs. Here are some ways I can support your journey:
1) Get free parenting tips - Click HERE for valuable advice tailored to real-life parenting challenges.
2) Explore parenting classes - Click HERE to discover classes designed to empower and inspire you.
3) Schedule a free, confidential consultation - Click HERE to connect for a one-on-one conversation about your family.
I believe every family deserves guidance that honors your individual needs, and I’m passionate about helping parents find practical, meaningful solutions that help their family thrive. Let’s work together to create positive and lasting changes for your family.