I try to approach parenting like I approach life. It’s an adventure. It’s all about the attitude.
Webster defines adventure as:
Definition of adventure -[ad-ven-cher] –
noun
1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2.participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises:
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
Or, my personal definition of adventure of motherhood: viewing it as something new, something exciting, something to go after, something to celebrate, something refreshing.
Oh, I know parenting is hard. I have five children between the ages of 12 and 25 with two of them married. I know how hard and crazy and chaotic and frustrating and messy it is, and some of those thoughts have ended up in this space and in my Real-Life Mom column for The Oregonian and in my On The Home Front and Writer Mom columns for the West Linn Tidings.
As parents, we need to embrace that mess and to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and to know that perfection is not the point.
Instead, seeing parenting as an adventure is celebrating your children’s talents and finding their niches and seeing the wonder of their lives and embracing their beauty and viewing life through the lens of our children. It’s finding the newness of their lives and praying like crazy and celebrating and guiding our kids and being fully present with them each and every day. Each day, each hug, each moment is a gift.
Bottom line, it’s loving God and loving your kids to pieces and letting them know they are your world.
Have fun being a mom. Have fun being a dad. Have fun being a parent.
[Previous in the series: Day 30: Making Outreach Part of your Family Life]
