“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on her own wings. Always believe in yourself.” ~unknown
Trust Your Journey – Trustyourjourney.com
Good Morning!
Believing in yourself is incredibly hard. Believing in yourself as a parent, I believe, is even harder. Most of us are surrounded by people who are always giving us advice on how to raise our children. Grandparents and parents are trying to help but often have us questioning if what we are doing is correct. There are a myriad of books, articles, videos, and television shows that are always touting the the newest and best way to parent, thus implying that our way of parenting must be wrong. Even celebrities have gotten into telling us how to parent, talking about all aspects of parenting from vaccinations to attachment parenting, speaking as if their way is the only way. And then there are those well meaning people (I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt) in the stores or in the restaurants that are also suggesting ways that we could parent better. It is no wonder why we question our parenting – the branches we are sitting on feel as if they are about to break off!
Most of this “advice” is given to us with good intentions but all of it becomes overwhelming and has us doubting our abilities to parent and the choices we make. I remember my mother telling me many times that I was going to regret not spanking my children. I tried to patiently explain to her many times why I did not believe in spanking but she never seemed to listen. I would hang up the phone and be confident that my choice of not spanking was the correct one. Then, suddenly I was in the midst of major chaos. The girls were yelling at each other, they had turned the house into a disaster, and to top it all off they were being very disrespectful to me. Suddenly, I was questioning my stand on spanking. The questioning did not usually last long but it did sneak in there. It had me questioning the strength of the branches instead of believing in myself.
So… Be like the bird and trust your wings. Believe in yourself. Remember that you know your children best and you know what is right for them. Don’t worry when the branches feel a bit shaky – keep trusting your wings and you will never be sorry.
Have some fun today!
peggy
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