“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.”
John Wilmot
I have three children only and a million of theories, which all turned out to be just a trial and error in practice. Parenting is as crazy as circumnavigating the world without a map…but, oh, what a journey, what an adventure! Journey that at times felt agonisingly frustrating and was driving me absolutely mad! Journey that helped me to get to know myself better and re-evaluate a lot of things in life. Journey that taught me:
- to focus on enjoying the ride rather than getting to the destination
- to stop being perfectionist: there are no perfect children, but there are plenty of perfect moments with them
- to be kind to myself: after all the only ‘perfect’ parents are those who never had children…
And that journey does not end when they become adults. Today I came across an article on parenting adult children with some useful tips:
- Recognise and respect your differences
- Discover your own strengths and weaknesses as a parent
- Let them learn from their own mistakes
- Avoid making them choose between you and their family
- No unsolicited advice – let them take their own decisions without interrupting them.
I would also add to this list ‘get your own life sorted’, take care of your own happiness and well-being. On airplanes we are always advised to put our oxygen mask first before helping our children? If we run out of oxygen ourselves, we can hardly provide any help to them…
What are your key parenting lessons or tips?
Credits:
- Photo 1 by AV: pashis
- Photo 2 from https://www.womensbyte.com/most-important-tips-for-parenting-adult-children/