“I thank God for … parents who are serious about their commitment to righteous, intentional parenting” Russell M. Nelson (April 2018)
What is intentional parenting?
When I had my first child, I would read everything I came over about parenting, about babies, what was good for them and what not. By the time my third child was born, I had stopped reading. I realized that it just made me feel bad when I wasn’t able to always keep my babies on their back when sleeping, only give them homemade vegetable purees, breastfeed till they were two, keep them out of my bed at night, they weren’t dry by the age of 2,5, wasn’t able to read goodnight stories to them every night, and when I realized that no one could make me as angry as they could make me. I felt like a failure every time I read about how I should do things and realizing that I fell short too many times.
I wish I had kept it up because parenting is NOT like riding a bike. You don’t learn it once and then you know how to do it the rest of your life. New (and old) challenges constantly come your way.
I think this is what President Nelson meant by intentional parenting; setting goals and actively choosing how to be a parent. I wish I had been more intentional about my parenting. Not that I have done a bad job. I have wonderful children (not at all bias), but I think that I could have made things even better for me and them by being more reflected and made active choices about how I want to parent.
People say that they wish their kids came with a manual. Honestly speaking, we have so much information and great resources available to us about parenting, that we can’t really use that excuse anymore.
The goal of this blog is to give parents some ideas on how we can become more intentional with our parenting. I hope you will read and add your comments to my post. I am sure we have different experiences and views that will enrich and widen our perspectives and help us become more intentional.
Intentional Parenting 