What’s Your Parenting Purpose?
Your parenting purpose helps guide your actions with your children. Do you know yours?
My parenting purpose and focus has shifted and changed daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and by the decade. I imagine all of us have shifting purposes that weave in and out of all aspects of our lives, but I have found that defining my parenting purpose helps me tremendously in my daily life.
These past fourteen years, I have felt more purpose and more focus than in any other time in my life. I have a job to do and I’m going to do it consistently, lovingly, and respectfully. I’m going to raise my children the very best way I know how.
Who knew my parenting purpose would come against such great odds and obstacles? I’ve worked hard to weed out those that aren’t on our team–people from my own family, their dad’s family, friends, society, archaic school systems, dogmatic thinkers, label givers, strangers on the street, therapists we paid to help us . . .
Our purpose as parents raising these different-brained children is critically important. We have to stand up, create boundaries, educate others, be compassionate, accept, empathize, cry, scream, and celebrate anything and everything that comes up for us.
Our purpose is not easy.
You see, I have a son who moves in his own way, who has a different set of needs than others. We all have needs, but his aren’t considered the “norm,” and therefore, they become highlighted and judged.
I have another son who has a different set of needs. I have a son who is not easily heard, who struggles to speak, who is pushed aside and sometimes stepped over. He deserves to be heard and my purpose is to hear him. My purpose is to open the airways to allow his message so he knows he’s valuable and important.
And I like feeling that my parenting purpose belongs to me but is also attached to a larger part of humanity.
Our purpose is huge. It’s vital in fact.
Our defined parenting purpose means more to our children than we can even begin to imagine.
What is your purpose? Mine is as follows:
My main parenting purpose is to love my sons.
My purpose is to accept my sons.
My purpose is to protect my sons. It is to help my sons maintain and develop a strong and healthy self-esteem.
My purpose is to teach them that mistakes are awesome and they need to own that they made them. And then my parenting purpose is to teach them how to repair any damage done.
My purpose is to teach my sons respect–for themselves, for me, for each other, for their family, for their friends, for their community, for every human being, and for the Earth.
Most of all, my parenting purpose is to teach my sons to love themselves and to know their absolute truth. I want them to follow their heart and passions throughout their lives (not mine).
My purpose is to give my sons what they need to succeed in this life. Not by test scores, not by money in the bank, not by trophies on the shelf. My purpose is to teach and guide my sons to become the men they are meant to be–men who respect the Earth, themselves, their dreams, and their relationship to all of humanity.
My parenting purpose is to teach my sons to know themselves exactly as they are, which is extraordinarily perfect.
Here’s to embracing our true essence and creating the lives we absolutely love to live!
Yes, we do got this,
Mica
What would you add as your purpose? Let us know below–we can all use community. <3
