Parenting....an action word!

Hi All!

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to travel with my daughter. During the weekend, we spent lots of time talking and chatting and philosophizing! My daughter Megan is an educator also and has the unique perspective of working with teenagers. I say that the little kids I work with are just the same, only they have smaller bodies! While we were on one of our walks over the weekend, she and I took to talking about kids, (we both are passionate about them) and parenting. She was the one who came up with the idea for this week's post....Parenting, it's an ACTION word! I think this idea is genius! Think of all that parents have to and need to do in order to be successful in this job! There is a lot of "doing" involved.

As I was thinking about this, this morning, I was watching the Today show. On the segment I was watching the first topic being discussed was of "bullying". This is a very disturbing phenomena. Unfortunately way too many kids experience this behavior from their peers. This is an area where lots of parent "action" is required. The commentator was retelling the story of a young teenager who actually killed herself because of the way she had been bullied by other kids at her high school. How TRAGIC is that?

Bullying of any kind requires lots of action from parents and adults. It requires hard work and hard decisions to teach children how to respect and treat others well. Kids, of course, can be innately mean at certain times of their lives. I would argue that toddlers and teenagers can be quite cruel. It is up to parents to help their children learn rules of proper social conduct. We do not have to teach our children to like everyone, we do have to teach our children to respect that everyone is just as important and valuable as they are. No one is any better than anyone else. We can be different and equal. This type of teaching requires lots of action because as our kids grow we will need to reinforce the concept of respect and kindness over and over. Unfortunately, I still see adults who need more learning in this area!

The second segment of the Today show this morning talked about children with Autism. Holly Robinson Peete and her family were on the show talking about their personal experiences. They have a son with autism. As I listened to their stories and the discussion that followed, and all that they have gone through and continue to go through, I thought about my dear friends who have two sons with autism. Their house is full of action! Parenting for them is a complete action word! They help their adult sons shower, they help drive them to their perspective programs, they help donate and raise money for the programs their sons are in, they continually look for new therapies and drug protocols for their sons....and so on and so on. Their parenting is action to the max!

Last night I happened to be talking with one of our neighbors. They have two sons. Both of them are adopted and they are fabulous parents. Their sons have different needs and do have some circumstances that require extra assistance from the school system. My neighbor and I discussed all that is going on in her 7th grade son's life. She has had to be his advocate and fight over and over for him to get the right programing and services that he needs to be his most successful self. She has had to act a lot! She spends countless hours coordinating with teachers and program directors and different schools to get the right setting for her son. She is at the point where she will need to find the right setting for him as he begins high school, a setting where people see all that he can do and not what he can not. Here lots of parenting as action is required!

As I think about all of the above information, I ask each of us that is a parent to consider how to parent as an action verb..
Do whatever it takes, whatever is needed to help your children grow and become the best possible model of themselves they can become. ACT!! Act so that your kids know you are always their advocate and that you will do whatever they need and do whatever it takes to help them become the best they can be!

I am waiting to see our sons new short film.....I heard it is an action short!

Until next time,

Pam