“The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill
I also like this comment by Carl Honore, author of Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting:
“To me, Slow parenting is about bringing balance into the home. Children need to strive and struggle and stretch themselves, but that does not mean childhood should be a race. Slow parents give their children plenty of time and space to explore the world on their own terms. They keep the family schedule under control so that everyone has enough downtime to rest, reflect and just hang out together. They accept that bending over backwards to give children the best of everything may not always be the best policy. Slow parenting means allowing our children to work out who they are rather than what we want them to be.”
I’d never refer to myself as balanced or slow-moving (more like wildly unbalanced and frenetically moving – including an injury this week from walking down the hall at the office. yes, I am that coordinated) but this description of parenting philosophy really feels right to me. Perhaps I try so hard at this with my children in an attempt to make up for what I know is a keen personal void. Who knows. I liked the quote.
Trying my best here, in the still-freezing-cold early spring.