The First Pillar of Family Life: Parenting
In my work with families, I break down “family life” into four main pillars: Parenting, Personhood, Partnership, and Prosperity.
These pillars are core parts of family life – and regardless of how present they may feel in your family, they are there. Even a single parent who has no job still communicates and models beliefs and practices around partnership and prosperity.
First, I want to talk about the first pillar: Parenting.
The minute your child entered your world – you became a parent. You took on this role that has been changing and evolving for centuries. You entered into a practice, an experience, shared by millions of others – and yet it is still so truly unique to YOU and your growing person.
When I think about parenting, I believe that regularly gaining clarity around where you are and where you would like to go as a parent is critical. When I see parents in my programs take time to do this, they are able to create healthy, sustainable relationships with their growing people AND engage in profound personal growth.
In fact, one of my year long parenting course participants said, “When I am consciously parenting – the whole experience builds our parent-child relationship and my relationship with myself, too. We are all developing together.” YES!
So…what is conscious parenting?
I would say that conscious parenting is a way of being rather than any sort of method or style of parenting.
It’s about being awake and alive to the experience of connecting with yourself and your growing people in the midst of the parenting journey.
It’s about seeing it as a journey in the first place with
ebbs and flows,
ups and downs,
twists and turns,
and more bodily fluids than you could have ever imagined.
Conscious parenting is about…
Knowing yourself deeply,
Tuning into your feelings,
Doing what feels right to you,
Finding ways to move toward ease,
Choosing connection,
Living with joy and gratitude,
Letting your love spill out all over the place,
Adopting an attitude of self-reflection,
Having loads and loads of compassion and empathy for yourself, your partner and your growing humans.
And, recognizing that there is no such thing as a perfect parent or a perfect child
(and really, who would want that anyway?)
and yet,
when you really stop and think about it,
it’s all just perfect in its own way.
The Essentials of Familyhood FREEBIE
Questions and Reminders for Creating Amazing Moments with your Favorite People
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Parenting Courses
You intend to be a calm and connected parent, but life happens, people get overdone and, all too often, the best of intentions fly out the window. Having the patience and energy for life as a parent requires presence, skill and a whole lot of tools.
MY WORK IS DESIGNED TO MEET YOU WHERE YOU ARE AND SUPPORT YOU IN GOING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.
Knot Parenting Podcast
UNTANGLING THE STICKY STUFF OF FAMILY LIFE
This podcast offers a new perspective on human development and parenting.
Listen now to find some amazing nuggets of parenting inspiration.
Join Carrie, along with her friend and collaborator, Kristen Manieri, as they explore what it means to Knot Parent.