The eve of my 17th Mother’s Day comes to a close, and a myriad of feelings have swirled throughout the day.  I look at my “babies” above, and I am ever cognizant that the days are long, but the years are short.
I shared recently in my major “Mommy Mess-Up Moment,” that amidst the beauty and bedlam of parenting –  the good, bad and ugly, there is no greater privilege than to nurture, encourage, lead and yes, mess up on the journey of mothering our children.
And it seems like we’ve had more mess ups this year from all of us than ever before. I am continually in pursuit of “my children’s heart,” meaning I desire their heart to be pursing choices made from a firm foundation of character, and I strive to communicate with them on a heart level.  I am not focused on performance or activities, but stressing character qualities that will matter years from now. As they get older, that has become more challenging, but one thing that has remained at the forefront of our relationship is open communication on issues that really matter.
It’s easy as a parent to continually go into lecture mode, and trust me, I have my lectures down quite well, but I know that they tune out the same old speech. Tween and teens can sense authenticity, and we strive to keep the lines of communication open on many levels. With that focus, I also need to be ready to have difficult conversations, and honest discussion on topics that may frustrate me. By proving to them that my ear is always open, no matter what the end result will be, a firm foundation is created – one from which building can occur when times get really difficult (And as parents, those time will come, so start early.) Taking with your teens, it’s a pursuit that will change your relationship forever, and even though I haven’t liked a lot of what I have heard lately from some of mine, I am glad that I parent for the long term. I have a long term vision in store for them. They may not always be on board right now, but I know that our choices for them now, done in love, will reap fruition in their long term legacy.
In my first two posts from this series, I talked about dealing with body odor with children & tween, but more importantly, building their self confidence to deal with this. Then I shared about my son’s first quote, “This is the smell of a man.” Yes, one I will never forget, and in this third episode we share our tips to parents on how to deal with the need for open communication. You can see my segment of the interview at about the 2 minute mark.

BlissTV – Don’t Fret The Sweat – Episode 3 from Blissful Media Group on Vimeo.

(If reading this via email, click over to the blog to watch the video.)
This post brought to you from Unilever and Bliss TV.