Parenting is a Full-Contact Sport

Life is Good: here's a thought for the day

At the bus stop this morning, I was talking with another bust stop mama (that sounds like a great name for a band, don't you think?) about a couple of bumps in the road we have had with the big kid riding on the bus. Not anything monumental, but rather just navigating alongside other kids who come from families with different rules, different dynamics, different lives. Then I flippantly said, "Parenting is a full-contact sport, after all, right?" And added, "It wouldn't be important work if it weren't hard work."

We wished each other a lovely day and bid our farewells. And as I walked a half-block to our house, I realized that my words deserved a more intentional tone. The fact is, parenting, the way I want to do it, is full-contact, 24-7-365, intentional, dedicated, non-stop, always thinking about it, always doing it, world making, life changing work.

And it is hard sometimes. It's hard to have to deliver consequences. It's hard to watch your child struggle or hurt. It's hard to maintain your own family's standards and morals and beliefs and rules in a world of families and people who think differently. Or don't think at all.

But it is also amazing. Wait. It is mostly amazing. Most of the time, it is the sweetest, most fun, most exciting way to spend your life, to use your breath. It is like sunshine and cotton candy and tickles, giggles, and summer break meets the ocean waves, hot air balloons, rollercoaster rides, and Christmas-morning-going-through-your-stocking all rolled together into a superb kind of wonderful.

Like I said in this post, this parenting thing is not for the faint of heart or the weak of spirit. That is for sure. The ride can be curvy and swervy, but it is also an exhilarating, wondrous one! Enjoy your ride today. And hug your passengers!