‘You only really have to offer your child(ren) one thing’

said a wise mentor many years ago, when I was fretting about whether I was offering my kids enough. 

She was commenting on our modern lives and how we think our children need to be offered the world. Parenting with this achievement mindset leads to so much comparison, unworthiness, guilt and exhaustion. 

Instead, we can tap into what we naturally are drawn to in our lives - and let that flow out and into our children. We often overlook the things that come easily to us, and focus on what is challenging or what we need to get better at. It is a sweet thing to let ourselves sit in our capacity and what we’re passionate about, and know that offering this to our children is enough. 

It may be something concrete like playing music in the home or gardening and growing your own food. 

But it also may be something subtle, and powerful. Such as regularly sitting with a cup of tea and being with the flowers and insects in the garden; or speaking to your child in a respectful way that is different to how you were spoken to growing up. It could be an orientation towards respecting the aliveness in the natural world, regarding the other than humans with love and respect. It may be a wide open welcome to having people over to share a meal in your home, or demonstrating how to be real and vulnerable with what you’re feeling. You may be the person who can lift the spirits of a group when things get stuck and heavy; you may be the steady one, always turning up and sitting back providing a sense of safety for others. You may be an extraordinary listener; you may be creative and always have a craft project with you, inspiring others; you may be very connected to the soulful life and offer insights from the depths to those around you. You may be drawn to going a different way than your peer group, and thus pave the way for others to do so too. You may be a beautiful conversationalist and take people on great journeys with your chats; 

There are so many unique and magnificent ways that each of us express ourselves in the world. 

We can feel assured that we are giving our children enough, when we are giving them one of these easeful things that flows through us.

Of course, what comes from the feeling of enough-ness as a parent, is the capacity to be present and connected with our child(ren). Which is where the magic of parenting happens.

Sending love to you in this soulful parenting path,

Love Felicity