Recently, my father-in-law took a look at my laptop and blurted out, “Peaceful Parenting!”
He had begun to read an article I was working on for the Pawling Public Radio website, “Nothing peaceful about it!” he went on with a gruff laugh, this coming from a father of eight kids who indisputably knows a thing or two about what it means to be a parent. His reaction was honest, off-the-cuff, yet with heart, and it got me thinking. The title to my recent parenting series really didn’t work. Although many of us do aspire for it to be, parenting is rarely peaceful. Truth be told, most of the time parenting is pretty stressful. With so many decisions to make, and so much to do in what feels like so little time, the concept of peace in the life of a parent often becomes fairly abstract. Many of us take a deep breath in the morning and don’t get a chance to let it out until our children are safely tucked into bed at night. If anything, parenting is work. But I do still believe that it can be fun work…and the idea for my new series was born.
My new series will be less of my personal parenting observations and more of a community collaborative. Time In: Inspiring Ideas for Creative Parenting will cover a wide range of topics. Time In will highlight education, health and wellness, nature, entertainment, and local resources. All topics will be developed with the common goal of supporting parents in our communal desire to raise happy, healthy, interesting, engaged children. I hope to create a place where parents and professionals in our community can share their personal expertise, parenting triumphs and tears, joys and fears. A place where we can come together as a community and help share useful information that will be beneficial to the children of Pawling and make the wild work of parenting feel a little less stressful and more fun.
And yes, “Time In” is the opposite of “Time Out”. I never really liked the expression much, as it related to discipline, and thought it would work well as a moniker for the type of parenting this series will be hoping to foster: hands-on, free-thinking, interactive. Time In is about getting out of the parenting ruts we all find ourselves in, about infusing parenting with optimism and a sense of empowerment. Time In is a place for sharing ideas to keep family life feeling fresh and inspiring creativity in our daily lives and those of our children. I encourage all of the parents in our community who have segment ideas to contact Pawling Public Radio. Together, we can truly build this community one voice at a time.
This article is sponsored by a generous grant from M&S of Pawling:
