I keep thinking about what our society would look like if people saw parenting as devotional. I have to remind myself, too. I hear you on the fatigue and the frustration--the many interruptions, stops and starts. I guess this is the spiritual experience... to keep reaching from the muck.
I'm biased — I'm the son of a mother who sacrificed her dreams in a sort of "it's not my turn" perennial fugue state. Her children are grown now. She is still working herself to exhaustion making other people's dreams happen.
Like most of parenting (and life), it's a delicate dance on the head of a pin to get the balance right.
What happens to the child of a parent with a dream deferred?
I loved this piece. I’m about 10 years further along with this whole parenting thing (my little one, A, just turned 12) and I’m trying so hard to reach for my dreams again. It’s a challenge every day. The kids have constant “emergencies” that I need to pay attention to just for tonight or just for this week or just for this month.
Trying to remember my own stuff and save energy for it is near impossible.
Then there’s being part of the sandwich generation. My parents did SO much for us when we were little and when the kids were little, and now we need to support them too.
I wrote about something similar today. It is so important for us as parents to have dreams, hobbies and goals. I put some of hobbies on hold when my kids were younger and I wish instead of putting them on hold that I would have been more intentional with making time for my hobbies. But I will tell you even when the kids are grown or teens the sleep we had pre-kids just aint the same LOL.
I keep thinking about what our society would look like if people saw parenting as devotional. I have to remind myself, too. I hear you on the fatigue and the frustration--the many interruptions, stops and starts. I guess this is the spiritual experience... to keep reaching from the muck.
I'm biased — I'm the son of a mother who sacrificed her dreams in a sort of "it's not my turn" perennial fugue state. Her children are grown now. She is still working herself to exhaustion making other people's dreams happen.
Like most of parenting (and life), it's a delicate dance on the head of a pin to get the balance right.
What happens to the child of a parent with a dream deferred?
A, the draft of this letter has that poem at the very top! I wish I included it as well. Former English teachers!
I appreciate you sharing that about your mother. Do you think deep down she experiences some kind of resentment? I think my mother has felt the same.
I loved this piece. I’m about 10 years further along with this whole parenting thing (my little one, A, just turned 12) and I’m trying so hard to reach for my dreams again. It’s a challenge every day. The kids have constant “emergencies” that I need to pay attention to just for tonight or just for this week or just for this month.
Trying to remember my own stuff and save energy for it is near impossible.
Then there’s being part of the sandwich generation. My parents did SO much for us when we were little and when the kids were little, and now we need to support them too.
I wrote about something similar today. It is so important for us as parents to have dreams, hobbies and goals. I put some of hobbies on hold when my kids were younger and I wish instead of putting them on hold that I would have been more intentional with making time for my hobbies. But I will tell you even when the kids are grown or teens the sleep we had pre-kids just aint the same LOL.