Parenting is a role, a mission, a devotion, a labor of love, a life's purpose, a skill, an art, an avocation, a delight, a commitment, a set of trials, a challenge.
It can also sometimes feel appropriate to think of parenting as a job, in the sense that:
1) it involves commitment to show up and work: Parenting is something we get out of bed and do even on days when we don't feel like it, even when we are exhausted, even when the rewards are remote, even when we're not sure whether we're being effective, even when it's frustrated.
2) It is work: Parenting includes applying labor to provide a service or product; the service is to the child and the product is a fully grown person able to thrive in the world. Parenting involves applying a set of skills to get tasks done, which includes improving skills and adapting as work requirements change, as the child grows older or the second child has different tendencies and temperament.
This blog* will convey insights that keep coming up again and again in my work with parents as a psychotherapist, and previously as a home-based family preservation coach and then later as a school counselor. I hope to help more people feel effective and motivated to succeed at this difficult, ever-changing role that sometimes, in our more exhausted, frustrated, futile, less confident moments, can feel like a very tough job.
*and maybe a book that might emerge from it, or a Google Helpouts service I might create associated with parenting
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