Parenting Partner

The other day an acquaintance told me how she has been encouraging her single 20 year old daughter who is currently going to college that she should have a baby. She went on to tell me how she longed to be a grandmother and she just couldn't wait until her kids started having babies.    Let me just say "Knock Knock Puddin Head!"    Too many people go into parenting without giving it the proper due diligence.   It is not for the faint of heart.   It is rewarding but it is also exhausting, frustrating, painful, anxiety-ridden and just plain hard work.   And I am not talking about my special needs child.

Luckily, I can't imagine parenting these past 5 years without Dan by my side.    Dan is the perfect parenting partner for me.   We have similar values and similar ways in which we parent.    I personally LOVE how he parents our children even though he is not the dad that is home by 5:00 every night.   Dan is a workaholic.   Dan is usually out the door before we get up and he gets home late, usually after 7:00 p.m.   Fortunate for us, both our kids have late start schools so they can have later bed times, so that they get to spend some time at the end of the day with Dan.   What I appreciate is the fact that Dan works really long hours so that I can stay home with the kids, but after working those long hours he comes home and spends quality time with the boys.   He doesn't sit in front of the T.V. instead he reads with them, plays basketball, soccer, Wii and lots more.  Weekends are our time together as a family.   The best thing about Dan is that he meets the boys where they are at developmentally, emotionally and intellectually.   He really knows how to build character and has a natural ability to bring out the best in people.    He is like a coach, motivating, encouraging yet having a strong hand to lead them.   I appreciate and I am so grateful for his parenting style, the way that he loves our children and the fact that he isn't afraid to demonstrate that to them openly.

Our marriage has been strengthened by having the kids in our life.   We work as a team and have this common goal of raising, healthy-minded, independent, God-Centered children.   The depth of our marriage has grown immensely in the past 5 years, for that I am blessed that I am not parenting on my own!