I think about parenting a lot. Probably because it’s what I do all day.
Mostly what I’ve learned is this: thinking about it too much can be overwhelming. There is no more monumental task than raising a child. There’s nothing that makes you feel more deeply, nothing that challenges you more, nothing that changes you as profoundly.
Every time I “start over” at the newborn phase of raising a child, I’m blown away by how much there is to teach them. The things you would expect, like using the bathroom, tying their shoes, using a fork, fastening a seatbelt. And the things you forget about. Not looking directly at the sun. Blowing a bubble with bubble gum. How to check an Internet site’s credibility.
The simple things, like how to replace the toilet paper role. And the complicated things, like how to be a good friend.
As parents, the responsibility for most of these lessons falls to us. Can you see how I keep coming back to “overwhelming”?
But in all my self-proclaimed overthinking and subsequent overwhelm, something else has come to my attention.
It started with my one year old.
For some reason, every time I open the garage door, my one year old yells, “WOW!” Like the garage door going up is the coolest thing she has ever seen.
Every time.
At first it just made me laugh one of those warm-and-fuzzy-heart parenting laughs. And then I got to thinking how amazing children are for reminding us to see the amazing in the ordinary. My kids constantly remind me to be in awe. I remember the first time I took my oldest to the laundromat. She was mesmerized watching the wash cycle through the glass on the machine.
Being curious. Being enthralled. Being enthusiastic. Being in awe. These are things we don’t have to teach them. Kids come pre-programmed for this, to varying degrees.
We as parents just have to avoid squishing their awe for as long as we can. And if we are really lucky, they can remind us how fun it is to be blown away every time the garage door magically opens.
However, as profound as it feels to be reminded of the magic in this world by our littles, it’s actually not the point I’m getting to.
You see, my children can see the magic in the world in so many places that I forget to look. But there is one place that I naturally see it that they don’t.
In them.
Of all the amazing things in this world, both ordinary and profound, nothing inspires more awe in me than my children.
I think that my most important job as a parent might be to teach them to see it too.
If my children learn nothing else but this, then I will have succeeded. To know that they are amazing. Beautiful. Unique. Capable. Strong. To know that they truly can accomplish anything they set their mind to. To know that they are worthy of respect. Of love.
To know that they are worthy of awe.
There are many lessons that the world will teach them if I fail to, even if it means they will learn the hard way. But if they can see the magic in themselves that I see in them, then I can set them free knowing that they won’t lose themselves in the journey. Because they will become their own compass.
I can think of no greater job as a parent than to give them that gift, to arm them with their own power.