I just hung up from a conference call with two of my beloved colleagues, Sue DeCaro and Sheila Wenger. We discussed the power of conscious parenting and the positive effects it is having on the parents with whom we work. We are hearing a common theme from parents – they are stressed, overworked, and have very little downtime. They are busy running their kids from one activity to the next, and they get home just in time to unpack, fall into bed and begin the process all over again the next day.
They are telling us that parenting is much more difficult, more stressful and far less joyful than they expected it to be. It is true that parenting is one of the most difficult jobs we will ever have, but not for the reasons we might initially think. The truth of the matter is that parenting demands for us to grow up more than anything else we have ever experienced. Parenting becomes more difficult than it needs to be when we do not recognize what we are being asked to do. Instead of facing the real issues and cleaning up our internal landscape, we escape into busy-ness, drinking the Kool-Aid that tells us that we and our kids will “be” something if we sign them up for every activity under the sun and run them and us ragged in the process. But what we eventually end up with going that route is burnout, exhaustion, frustration, and disconnection. And that is when we look around and say that this whole parenting thing is not what we expected at all.
It does not have to be that way, for us or for our children. I used to live that way as a parent myself. I stopped drinking the Kool-Aid, and I began to look for a better way. Conscious parenting IS the better way. When we see and understand what triggers us and make the connections of how our childhoods are influencing the way we parent, we can begin to clear out that debris that is holding us back from having the rich, fulfilling, deeply satisfying relationships with our children that we dreamed of before they entered our lives. It IS possible and there IS a way. Message me if you want to learn more. The endless cycle of “doing” and running yourself ragged can stop, and I can help you to stop it.