Mistakes in Parenting...

Have you ever made a MISTAKE in PARENTING?! I know…stupid question right?!

I’ve been married to my wife, Tammy for 37 years. We have 4 kids, ages 35, 32, 31 and get this…a 17 year old at home! Yeah, late in life God thought it would be funny to give us our 3rd son. 

 So here’s the thing…we had 3 kids ranging 4 years old and under…MISTAKES?! Are you kidding me?! We made plenty. Heck, we were just trying to stay alive! After all WE WERE OUTNUMBERED! You get so busy changing diapers, opening and closing strollers, cleaning up messes, trying to get them to brush their teeth, pick up their room, do their homework. And getting them to be quiet and go to sleep?!?! Uh yeah right?!? I can’t remember how many times we would say, “If you ask me one more question, I’m going to…!!!

We would fall into bed at night and worry and wonder if we were good parents. We wanted to be good parents…NO…we wanted to be great parents. We read books, went to parent workshops, talked with people who had raised “great kids”…all this led to lots of ACTIVITY and PHILOSOPHY…but, it seemed like there were pieces missing. “Were our kids going to grow up hating us? Would they be losers in life? Were we too strict on them and creating Psycho’s?! 

 It wasn’t until we learned to envision them as adults…the kind of adult child that would be a great person, happy, fulfilled, and appreciated by their friends, that we learned the secret! Once we envisioned them like we wanted them to be, we worked backwards and began to figure out what they needed to be taught along the way to ensure they “turned out right”!

NOW don’t get me wrong we made plenty of mistakes…but now that they’re grown…I’m excited to tell you that they are great kids with kids of their own. 

Oh…and our 17 year old…extra bonus…we are one of the few parents who got a “do-over”…well sorta! our oldest was in College when we were changing his diapers. The oldest kids favorite saying was, “You never let us get away with that!” HaHa…parenting is a blast! 

But, just last night my 17 year old, said, “I’m so grateful to have a Dad like you that will listen to my stuff and help me sort it out! None of my friends have that with their Dads” (I may or may not have cried a little when he said that!)

Back to the mistakes…until you figure out the end game…you know…imagining what your ideal child would look like as an adult and creating a plan…you’ll never feel like you are improving, and cutting down on the mistakes.

Tammy and I are launching a new service, we’re calling Diapers-to-Dorms! While we have been counseling and helping people be better parents in our workshops, small groups and stuff…we’ve never done one-on-one coaching…UNTIL NOW. We’ve put together a great little strategy to get you up and running with confidence in your parenting over a 10 week program. If you get tired of being tired, trying to do the parenting thing and would like some proven help. Then you need to get on a FREE STRATEGY SESSION CALL with Tammy and me. Our calendar is getting full but we have a few spots open…book your free session on our calendar and let’s talk!

Click HERE and set up a call!