Hang on to your kids

I know this sentiment has been brought up before (by Gordon Neufield and later Gabor Mate). I just believe so strongly in this, even though it is so so hard. Our culture’s pull is so much “cooler” than anything mama can offer. And while I want my children to have friends and be well integrated, I also yearn for them to still come to me when things go wrong. I want them to still feel like I’m that non-judgemental parent coaxing them to take their next wobbly step, excited and scared, but keeping their eyes strait forward in my direction, knowing I will catch them if they fall.

Summer seems like a more opportune time to enter their worlds intentionally, but also to unplug and have them enter our worlds intentionally as well. Bring out the baby album, remind them what they were like when they were little. And here’s a special nugget: tell them their birth stories. If it wasn’t particularly traumatic, children tend to love hearing about how they came into the world.

My pre-teens seem to already behaving like teens and I have mixed feelings. I’m brainstorming ways to keep them their age, to keep reaching forward as they take next steps, to help guide them into being good human beings. Ones that still come to me or are within my reach, even if I’m no longer “cool.”