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Credit: The People We Raise
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#kids #toddler #baby #present #moment
Yesterday, I thought about playing a practical joke on my husband. It’s not something I’d normally do because well- I have soooo much to do but lately playfulness has been at the top of my agenda.
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Kids ask “will you play with me?” as a request for intimacy and connection. Play is their language- the way they process their emotions and trauma- it’s also the way back to themselves and their caregivers.
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Mommies can forget this and get caught up in our to-do list and our exhaustion. I’ve been asking myself do I want to feel tired and cranky or tired and silly with my kids? I’m realizing that motherhood is also about being a master of PLAY. I have days where I have to really push myself to do my funny voices for my kids for “5 more minutes” or drag them by their feet across their playroom a million times . There are also days where I put on a full costume and have dance parties with my boys to Rob Base’s ‘It Takes Two” and muster up the energy to play hide and seek for what feels like an eternity. All I know is that as a Mom- I’m in the business of presence and play and I’m willing to remember just how good I am at it.
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How about you? Do you remember how good you felt playing as a child? Can you find some time to play FULL-OUT with your kids this week?
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P.S. I’m loving the book “Playful Parenting” by Lawrence J. Cohen. It’s transformed my parenting style significantly and I pretty much plan on using the techniques in this book until my boys are just too cool to play with me. Sending prayers of present play your way today. ✨✨✨
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Shirt by: @Oursacredwomen
I’m on a floating cloud of connection after 2 days talking about trauma. This may sound strange, as it may not be your way to fill your cup, but it was phenomenal for me. Love this meme Dr Karen Treisman shared. Was wonderful to be surrounded by such an incredible tribe of people who ticked all these boxes at the trauma workshops. Thank you ❤️ Have you found your tribe? They are out there. If you dont like the word tribe just focus on what it brings to your life. Thank you for following me and being part of flourishing childhoods ❤️ #awareparenting #flourishingchildhood #tribe #connection #support #parenting #bethechange #senseofself #traumahealing #gabormate #peterlevine #drsolter #joy
So if you haven’t heard of Gabor Mate, having spent all day hearing him speak compassion and wisdom, I feel even more confident that this is truly transformational work. If you’ve had trauma in your life I’d recommend any of his books and if a parent ‘Hold onto your kids’ by both Dr Neufeld and Gabor Mate are essential to developing strong attachments. They maintain that children’s biggest fear is the loss of the attachment relationship. Current methods of sleep training, punishments including timeout as well as rewards and the lack of education around the healing effects of crying and raging in children is profoundly damaging our children’s attachment relationships which affect the rest of our lives. We can change this ❤️ #awareparenting #gabormate #handinhandparenting #drneufeld #parenting #traumahealing #somaticexperiencing #bethechange
Right now it is much less about what we are teaching our kids and much more about what we are teaching ourselves. It’s about who we are being and what we are modeling as possible by doing it ourselves. We must cultivate the beliefs that we want to instill in our young ones. You are the model, and you cannot model what you do not practice. // an old journal entry
Over the course of this, I’ve gotten many messages wondering if actions have been damaging to kids. Questions wondering if strategies used in the past or present could be dangerous to a child’s development.
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The truth is - maybe it was, or maybe it wasn’t, and this doesn’t mean it is “bad” or “good.” This doesn’t mean we throw in the towel and intentionally behave a certain way or shoot for “tough love” or to “teach” that the world is a less than safe place —
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It means that as humans, the reality is that we are designed to fail. And despite our best efforts and intentions, we will fail. Especially if we are growing and breaking patterns and striving daily.
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Research says humans make mistakes, error, or act outside of our values *minimum* 10% of the time.
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No one is exempt. It only becomes a problem when we measure our worth as that 10%, which we tend to do because humans are also prone to looking at the areas that could use improvement or are perceived to be flawed in some way.
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Who agrees it’s time for a shift Especially if you are here - you are probably doing better than you think you are, mistakes and big moments and all.
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Where can we focus on the percentage of time we live in love, connect in joy, laugh about the good stuff? Where can we give ourselves grace when we mess up and behave in ways we wish would’ve been different?
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Where can we see the root emotions behind these behaviors, the wants and needs that underlie those, and gift ourselves a moment (or five) of self compassion?
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Because the more authentically we see the humanness and flawed-ness and failure in ourselves, the more “us” we bring into relating with them.
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And the truth is - that’s all they really need.