Parenting is the most complex job people on earth face, with the least training and assistance to accomplish it.
Parenting Spiritually book, course, and resources set out both the framework and practicalities of parenting in the modern era.
Traditionally parenting is undertaken on an instructional model, that is, the parent tells the child what to do because the parent believes they know better. The spiritual component of parenting spiritually introduces the component of parenting through choice.
This is an entirely new approach to parenting which will allow the child to better achieve what it came to earth to do and to relieve the parent of a lot of the pressure of parenting.
Why Parent Spiritually?
We have all been parented - one way or another- by someone. We all have or had a parent.
Where did they learn to parent?
Generally, from their own parents.
How well was that done?
How much of that do we want for our own children?
How much would we just not want to do - and yet sometimes find ourselves doing.
Are we the parents we aspire to be or are we making decisions we don’t like and can’t seem to help ourselves?
Do we always know what actions to take, or do we often doubt and don’t know where to go for guidance?
The paradox of parenting is that it is accepted how important it is, but so little attention is paid to it and so little is taught about it. Parenting is not understood.
To parent spiritually is opting to be in the life of a child to reinforce the child’s development, to help it deal with the grind of daily living, to act as an adjunct to its own powers, and to help steer it towards a journey of ‘higher purpose,’ without unnecessarily meddling in its affairs.
It is self-evident from this definition that parenting is much more than telling a child what to do based on what you were told to do. It is much more about developing the independence of the child to live their life with the guidance of the parent and taking into account that each child has a specific spiritual purpose for being on earth this time.
This means that each child has specific things they need to learn so as to meet their purpose for being here. Effective parenting quickens the development of the skills from which a child needs to learn. To fully grasp this, a parent needs to understand that the learning their child will need during their life will be different from that of the parent. In understanding this, a parent can liberate themselves from the notion that they need to have all of the answers for their child throughout the child’s life, and that these answers follow the model of the parent's parenting.
How Parenting Spiritually Can Help Your Children?
Consider the helpless infant, unable to fend for itself. A parent must attend to all of their needs in this early stage. Suddenly the parent lessens this behaviour and starts to tell the child what to do. When the child starts to do differently from what the parent told them to do, the parent overrides the child’s choice with an instruction.
At this stage the parent is saying to the child, no matter what you think you want to do, I know better, just do it my way. If you do, I will reward you (including through the lack of admonition) and if you don’t, I will punish you (including through raised voice or exclusion).
This offers the child no choices. It is exacerbated when the parent tells the child they are ‘good’ because they have done what the parent wanted them to do.
The outcome of this style of parenting is that the child learns to be a good child by forgoing their own needs in order to please and satisfy their parents. Invariably, this spreads to other authority figures in their childhood such as relatives and teachers.
The child grows up without an independent voice for their own thoughts and a belief that somehow their own needs will be met throughout life just by pleasing and satisfying others. This plays out in adult relationships and unless the child changes in adulthood, will never result in a deep ongoing, and loving relationship.
Credit: www.parentingspiritually.com