Positive Parent

Every week I think about what I want to write about… what can I share with you that will inspire and entertain you?   I am learning not to think too hard about it all, as inspiration comes to us in timely ways.  Just when we need it – it will be there.  Someone will say something to you, or you will hear something you’ve heard a million times and yet this time it will have new meaning.  This week’s inspiration came to me in the oddest of moments, a circumstance I could never have guessed, and yes in a timely way that has now compelled me to share it with you.  It all happened over a pint of grape tomatoes!  I was standing in my kitchen while my youngest little man was amusing himself with a Lego police space ship that to him seemed larger than life and to me represented 5 uninterrupted minutes to create a part of the evening meal.  I decided to put together a salad and I randomly grabbed what I could from the fridge.  I opened up a container of grape tomatoes that probably had made their way to the depths of refrigerator despair.  They certainly were not going to be the highlight of the salad but I was determined to use what I could.  I started to pick out the bad ones and I let them begrudgingly drop into the garbage disposal… bad one, after bad one, after bad one, I started to become frustrated.  I hate throwing food away and yet as frustration mounted I just wanted to dump the entire container and give up on those little red gems.  It was in that moment that I had a change of heart and I decided to start picking out the good ones and placing them into the salad bowl.  All of a sudden I had a complete shift in attitude and my mood began to change after just finding two good tomatoes.  My entire focus shifted to sourcing only what was good and the more edible ones I found the happier I became.  Ok – so what on earth do grape tomatoes have to do with raising children?  Fair question!  When we spend our time focusing on the more difficult challenges of being a parent it only continues to heighten our awareness toward the negative aspects.  In turn when we begin to look at what is going well for us as parents we continue to see more positive things.  So as the weather around us turns from winter to spring I invite you to take this opportunity to look at your children and find the good grape tomatoes AND more importantly look at yourself as a parent and connect to all the gifts you bring to your family.  Celebrate all of your good tomatoes!!

No matter what, no matter how, where or who – you can always turn around and get a second chance.

Anonymous