Doin’ Ok

It is interesting how traveling has changed my perspective on parenting. 

When we go on a day trip the morning always starts out a little rocky.  We don’t know exactly what we are going to do when we get to our destination, the car ride can be challenging with the baby, we are usually trying to figure out where we are going…

Then we finally reach where we are going and we pour out of the car, ready to find some space.

At this point I am usually questioning why we are doing this, if this was a good idea, am I expecting too much from my children, do I deserve to even be a parent (just kidding, but it isn’t far from what we parents sometimes say to ourselves over small things, right?:))

And then once we stretch into the wide open and feel the tightness in our bodies relax, and my breaths become deep and slow again, the world just starts flowing to us.

 

By the end of the day we have found some neat park or river or bookstore where we have spent the afternoon laughing and playing and making new friends.

And by the time we are driving home in the evening, a baby asleep in my arms, watching the mountains pass by out the window, I am thinking to myself how great the day ended up being. 

And I am realizing that my way of showing the world to my children is changing.  Before, I tried to avoid all negative experiences, anything that could overtax them. 

But then I noticed how much pressure that was, how boring it was for the adults in the family, and how it wasn’t really working anyway. 

So now, I find I just want the good to outweigh the bad, the fun to outweigh the stress,  the love to outweigh the anger, the freedom to outweigh the rules, the yes's to outweigh the no’s.  

I figure if I do this, I am doing ok.

And besides, one could get used to scenes like this:).