Reflections from parenting

In 2006, I became a parent for the first time, and guess what? My life changed forever. I was nearing thirty and the emotions of hard-core fear  mixed with so much joy was not as felt on my wedding day as it was on the day I held my offspring in my arms for the very first time.

Merriam-Webster defines the  parent as a person who brings up and cares for another and Parenting as the task of rasing up a child.

Scary stuff. Right?

The definition in itself implies that you are in charge of raising another human being other than you. I could hardly care for me, or make myself do the right things at the right time, and here I was, responsible for the care of someone else. This had to be the funniest joke of the decade. But I got  over my fears with the support of  some very good people who loved God and knew the importance of raising kids to be godly in a world that is often times Anti-good; and good parents, who like me, had also been terrified when they first became parents.

Now, while the idea of a ‘Parenting Degree’ seems laughable, there really isn’t anything funny about having to parent children who sometimes can be more tricky than you ever were as a child.  Times are changing and more challenging than they ever were when we were growing up. Thus raising children in our present day world is increasingly daunting and scary.  Well-meaning parents and guardians  find themselves running helter-skelter as they strive to be in charge. Unfortunately, mistakes are made in the process. Some children ultimately become badly scarred emotionally, while many of us lose sight of ourselves as we attempt to fulfill the quest, leading frequently to physical and emotional exhaustion and furstration.

This is why Reflections from Parenting was born. It is a forum for sharing my parenting experiences – the good, the bad and the ugly – with the goal of encouraging you and hopefully, I too get encouraged by you.  This site is a place where parents and guardians can laugh at the mistakes and bravely keep on going; a place for the sharing of  true life stories with other parents carrying the tasking, yet beautiful assignment of raising our kids to be the best they could ever be.