Every parent parents. Every parent guides. Every parent loves. But, do we do it well? Do we do it with purpose and intention? Or do we just go the path of least resistance, put our parenting in cruise and just let days, weeks, years fly by with no specific goals? Do you know where you want to end up as a parent?
Michael and I, as you know have set out on a journey to set specific goals with our lives. We haven’t yet gone deep into our parenting goals, but have started to explore the territory. Tonight we listened to a teleseminar from Kent Julian called Parent it Forward. It was awesome and gave us a good kick in the butt to get our parenting goals clear and in order.
Here were four points that really stuck out to me from our seminar:
1. Give yourself a parental job description: In other words, what do you want your role to look like as a mother or father? Write it down. Be specific. Then you won’t get 15 years into parenting and think, “What am I doing, this isn’t the mom or dad I wanted to be!”
2. The myth of quality time: So many parents take life so fast that they are not spending healthy time with their children on a day to day basis. Then they say things like, “I am going to take Friday off and spend some good quality time with my kid.” Quality time is a byproduct of the quantity of time you spend with your kids. Doing life together opens up all kinds of doors for sharing your heart and hearing theirs.
3. Teach your children that event + response = outcome: Many people approach life from the standpoint of events only equal outcome. “Hero’s do not let events dictate outcome.” Kent Julian said. We get to choose how we respond to what happens to us in life. This is powerful.
4. You are the most influential person in your child’s life: Too often parents are fooled into thinking that peers or media will be most influential in a child’s life as they get older. These only win out by default if a parent takes a back seat in a teenager’s life.
So, we learned a ton and were reminded that parenting, just like any other “muscle” in life, has to be worked to reach it’s full potential. We are excited to learn more and experience more of this wonderful adventure!
Question: What parenting goals do you have?
Wow, thanks for the kind review!
I’m glad I had the chance to serve you and add value to your lives through this event. There’s not much that tops the importance of our role as parents, so it was a privilege to share the insight that Kathy and I have gained over the years.
Keep up what you’re doing here. As you know, I’m a regular reader of rise365. You are serving with excellence!
(BTW…I “liked” this post. How could I not? 🙂
Kent!
How could I resist… your material rocked man!! Thank YOU! We are diving in with both feet and are soaking up any bits of wisdom we can… 🙂
Michael and I were talking this morning about your goal to serve your community and that really spoke to us as well. I have always loved connecting with people but looking for ways to serve my community puts a wonderful and meaningful spin on it!
Can I just say…I like you guys 🙂
Keep doing what you are doing — you’re adding a lot of value to people’s lives!
You have no idea how much that means! Thank You Kent.
I wanted to listen in, but I wasn’t able to so thanks for reviewing for me. 🙂 Sounds like Kent had some awesome advice…as usual!
You are too kind, Ryan!
I’ll be re-recording the teleseminar (tightening up to about 45 minutes) and offering it on my website soon. I’ll let you know!
Sounds great! I’ll look forward to it!
Ryan,
It was awesome indeed!
I especially like hearing advice from people that are a couple years ahead of me in the parenting realm 🙂
Totally! Which is where Kent comes in! 🙂
Indeed.