The Biggest Parenting Responsibility You Have
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The biggest parenting responsibility you have isn’t what you might expect.
It isn’t to make sure your kids turn out a certain way.
It isn’t even to stop their misbehavior.
No, the biggest parenting responsibility you have isย YOU.ย We see this quite clearly in the following adaptation of the Serenity Prayer, which we think is a fantastic (and challenging) reminder for us as parents:
We parents often bring ourย own baggage to the parenting (and disciplining!) of our children. (We’ve written about plenty ofย our own parenting strugglesย with this.) This can complicate things and teach kids that parents areย against themย instead of teaching them to make a wiser decision next time.
The biggest gift we can give our kids is to do the work to leave our baggage at the door and be the safe, loving space where they can truly learn and grow from their mistakes. This doesn’t mean that we ever get it perfect — but it does mean that we take responsibility forย us.
We can’t control our kids.ย But we can control ourselves.
You can download a free desktop or phone wallpaper image of the “parenting serenity prayer” here.
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