Parenting with less stress {Our Style}

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of the warrior, so are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate."
Psalm 127:3-5

The verse above is one I very firmly believe. Children are indeed an incredibly great blessing, a wonderful gift from our Father above. Parenting is a very special job that God has given us and it is my great desire to do it well. I know I don't do it at all perfectly, I make mistakes all the time! But thank-fully God is patient with me, and he doesn't require perfect parents before He gives us the gift of children!

I have decided to write a series on parenting. I started thinking about it a lot when I have visited with my sister-in-laws and some other new mothers. They would ask questions and it was fun to share with them how we have done different things. We haven't always followed the "normal" route (The one advised by a pediatrician) and I realized how encouraging it can be for others who are contemplating going a route less traveled to hear that it did work for somebody else as well. This series will be basically a journal of what we have done, it will be a "works for me" post. Obviously that doesn't mean that the way we have done it is the only "right" way, and I hope that never does anybody feel like I am putting down their parenting style. I am just hoping to share what has worked for us in hopes of encouraging others that want to try it that way too.

Some of the topics I plan to share on are:

• Pregnancy and preparation
• Natural Childbirth (and for one child-a home birth)
• Breastfeeding
• Natural health care
• Feeding baby and also children
• Co-sleeping
• Schedules
• Child Training and discipline
• Homeschooling
• and much, much more!

When I was trying to come up with a title for this series I thought about calling it "Relaxed Parenting", as one of the things that has been very important to me in parenting is to not be high-strung and stressed about this job. We do need to take our job seriously but at the same time I don't think we need to be stressed out about it. God gave them to us as a blessing, something we can enjoy. I decided not to call it Relaxed Parenting because I think the wrong idea of never taking care of your children could be thought of and I didn't want that. Another term I have heard lately, and I do think it applies to our style, and that is slow parenting. It is when you avoid the often normal rushed lifestyle of many and just let the kids be kids. Don't have them enrolled in tons of educational programs (sports, dance, science club, music, etc.) but rather let them enjoy playing outdoors after chores and schoolwork are done. Have fun exercising and such as a family, not each family member heading their own direction.

In each post of the series I plan on sharing our story on the subject and then I will make a list of the specific things that work for me, like this:

• Understanding my children are a gift from God Works for me!
• Not following our current culture in parenting works for me.
• Enjoying our children instead of being stressed works for me.

I would love to have you join me for this series and I also look forward to hearing your stories, what has worked for you in parenting! I will try to post this series every Wednesday but I am sure there will be days that I will miss every so often. :-)