A Time For Parenthood

I confess that was me for the first four years of my oldest’s life. I was so busy managing her medical needs that the fun, spontaneous, relaxed person I once was had become a figure of the past. I remember sitting in a play workshop that I had the opportunity of attending and thinking, “I’m no fun.” That day God moved my heart to become a fun parent who can relax in her children.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 became one of my favourite passages during this transformation.  I especially like verse four because I’ve endured a lot of weeping and mourning; now its time to move forward to laughing and dancing.

As I go about my day, I have my own version of Ecclesiastes that I repeat: “A time for temper tantrums, a time for kisses, a time for fun, a time for snuggles.” It helps me keep the big picture in place.

Here are three things that helped me relax more as a parent and enjoy my time with my children more.

  1) Pray! Ask God to help you become a more relaxed and fun parent. Pray that He leads you on this journey and ask Him to help you be in the moment with your children.

  2) Make fun a priority! Schedule it into your date book or put it on the top of your daily to do list. If it is not a priority, it will not happen. You might have to make a conscious effort to have fun at first, but after a while it will be part of your daily routine, right along with those dishes!

  3) Be flexible! As I wrote this post I pushed the computer to the side, (even though I was really close to this post deadline) picked up my daughter, and had an impromptu dance fest. Some of the best fun sneaks up on you. It’s okay to do the dishes later, or put the laundry aside for a couple of hours while you have some fun with your children.

I hope you take the challenge to be a more relaxed parent and have more fun with your children. This is the season of parenthood, take a moment to soak it in because one day those children will leave the nest and you will enter a different season of life.