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If this is your first time here, scroll down to read day one. Otherwise, here are the links to the other 31 day posts:
- Love Your Spouse
- Place the Big Rocks First
- Slay Their Dragons
- Read. A lot.
- Limit the Media
- Teach Them Honesty
- Ditch the List
- Real Life Happens
- Establish Traditions
- Put Them to Work
- Cookie and a Bookie
- Teach Them Who They Are
- Get Involved in Their Education
- Take a Break
- Make Them Smile
- Candy
*****
Day One:
One day last week I was at the grocery store, three kids and a gigantic pregnant belly in tow, trying to manage my list and coupon binder while manuevering the cumbersome “car” cart my kids had begged for but would not stay seated in. True story that it’s not a scene I enjoy creating, however, this is my life, sometimes my husband works late nights, and milk always runs out at inconvienent times.
It never fails, times like these are when a passerby also comments. It varies a bit, but is typically something along the disapproving lines of “these ALL yours?” I always bite my tounge, keep a smile, and find something witty to say like, “actually I left the other four at home!” But this particular day I was feeling extra hormonal and my husband soon received a blubbering phone call with me wondering ”what the heck we’re doing having a FOURTH?”
Jared is good about bringing perspective and he calmly reminded me, “if anyone knows what it’s like to not be in charge of how many kids we have, it’s us. (None of my seven pregnancies were “planned.”)
And so remembering that it really doesn’t matter what people say, we just love these munchins to pieces and do the best we can to raise them, because parenting is a gift and repsonsibility we’ve been trusted with.
It’s definitely not a ”light” responsibility though and the act of having kids doesn’t necessarily make you a mom (or dad) just like having a piano doesn’t necessarily make you a musician. It takes a lot of hard, hard work. I wholeheartedly believe that, “no amount of success can compensate for failure in the home” (David O. McKay) and it’s been on my mind a lot as we’ve been preparing for our newest addition to arrive in just a couple of months.
So when The Nester issued a challenge to write about one subject for 31 days, I decided it would be good for me to write about intentional parenting.
This is not to say that I have any idea what I’m talking about when it comes to parenting or that I have a bunch of information to share. And it’s certainly not meant to be a 31 day crash course on being a perfect parent. But you know how if you have to explain something to someone you tend to learn it/understand it better yourself? It’s a little trick I used with my struggling first graders in the pre-mommy days. I’d pair the struggler up with someone and ask them to teach the concept. By golly, those strugglers learned quite well when asked to perform!
So I guess this is similar. . . writing about being an intentional parent for 31 days will hopefully help me become a better mom as I gather and share a collection of ideas, thoughts, and goals.
Read more 31 Days of Intentional Parenting posts:
- Love Your Spouse
- Place the Big Rocks First
- Slay Their Dragons
- Read A lot.
- Limit the Media
- Teach Them Honesty
- Ditch the List
- Real Life Happens
- Establish Traditions
- Put Them to Work
- Cookie and a Bookie
- Teach Them Who They Are
- Get Involved in Their Education
- Take a Break
- Make Them Smile
- Candy
Looking forward to your blog, Pam! I am about 11 years past where you are now. I have four and I can tell you I had many a meltdown too. But I gleaned a lot of support and wisdom from women with MORE than 3 kids and they all told me the same thing: if you can handle 3, you can handle 10. Three is the deal breaker for some reason. 2 hands, 2 kids…no problem. 2 hands, 3 kids…someone’s going to escape.
I look forward to your blog even though I’m past your stage of life. As I’m blogging about the teen years and keeping the love in our family I’m sure that I will need to refer back to you and others for some wisdom and advice for my younger readers. This is going to be an incredible month!
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Pam Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 2:17 am
@Juanita Dueck, I’ve heard that too, that after 3 it doesn’t matter how many you have! Whew, 3 is a lot of work though!! It’s good to hear from others that have survived it though! I’ll keep an eye on your 31 days to glean wisdom from you!!
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I’m really looking forward to hearing what you have to say!
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Wow, congrats and more power to ya! Since you dropped that quote I am now more certain that we have one more thing in common! Check out my latest post:http://thefarrm.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-hope-they-call-me-on-mission.html
It’ll hopefully help you see how well all the work you do now will pay off!
BTW- I have 6 children!
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Pam Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 2:15 am
@The Farrm, Congrats on the mission call!! That’s so exciting! It’s encouraging to see that the hard work does pay off eventually. Just need to stay consistant…
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I wish i had a dollar for every time ive heard something similar. My favorite comeback to those comments is now, “If you saw my husband, you’d know why!”
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