My ebook How to Handle Not Strangle Your Teenager gives you Ten Need to knows along with lots of other stuff I think essential to experience Happy Parenting :o) Each topic is as important as the next and they are certainly not in order of importance! So, I have decided today to write more about no 10 in the book first “Know you are always doing your best” 🙂
If I’d have known this years ago, I wouldn’t have given myself such a hard time with things I said or did. I would look back at a situation with regret for what I might have said or done and wished it was different. What I realize now is that at that time, when I did or said whatever it was I really thought that was the best thing then. Often, it’s only with hindsight we see it could have been better! I have learnt not to beat myself up about this, it serves no one. Instead I look, think and wonder what could I have done differently, what have I learnt. Often it was what I wouldn’t do again! learning how not to do something is progress, like Eddison, not choosing to see that he failed at making the light bulb, just that he found lots of ways of not making one! And he did discover some really cool stuff along the way :o)
Because something doesn’t turn out as you hoped or planned does not mean it’s wrong, or a failure. There’s a divine plan and this universe has a way of having things turn out exactly as they are supposed to though it may not feel like that at the time. Think about something in your past that wasn’t what you wanted at the time, was possibly even, unpleasant not a good experience and then see what’s happened since that is. We can often trace the steps back, knowing that one thing led to another and another and without any of the pieces we wouldn’t be in the good place or have the good thing happen. A friend of mine recently was telling me about someone she knew that she was doing something with and I asked how they met, she had to think for a minute and then remembered it was when she had been burgled and the police had been involved and then a support group and they met there! The burglary wasn’t a ‘good’ thing in , what it led to is!
Knowing you’re doing your best, is easier when you’re looking after yourself. When you take the time for you, do what you know is good for you, nurturing and caring for yourself you then have the ability to make more considered decisions in your parenting. Be calm and measured in your responses and really Do remember You are Doing Your Best :o)
Happy Parenting :o)
Karen x