Momference: A Meeting of the Moms

Competing priorities.  Trying to balance work and home.  Never enough time or money.

Sure you want to be the best parent you can. However, competing priorities in your busy life can cause us to lose focus or make poor choices along the way. These lapses in focus, if recognized in time, will not keep you from developing loving relationships and realizing your dreams for your family. But, if left unchecked, can cause you to derail and become strangers in your own children’s lives. Then as the years pass you may be left to wonder why your kids don’t seem to make time for YOU any more.

While impossible to completely eliminate today’s choices from haunting you tomorrow, the good news is that the risk can be drastically reduced by parenting with intention, and through the creation of a Parenting Action Plan.

• The secret is to have a plan!  Action plans are the secret of every successful person—whether plans for business or for life! Regular reflection and refinement can ensure your parenting practices remain aligned with your goals—bettering your chances of remaining on target and reaching your parenting and family goals.
• Trip analogy …But before starting any journey, it’s usually a good idea to have a clear understanding of both your destination, and your starting point (where you are now).
• It’s not very often you just start driving and wonder where you’ll end up. And yet how often do you go on parenting auto-pilot … living day-to-day without any real thought or vision of the future?

Define the destination

That’s why the first step in creating your Parenting Action Plan is to picture your ideal destination—where you would like to see yourself and your family at various stages in the future.

No matter what your hopes and dreams for your children, family or parenting, you have a much greater chance of achieving your goals if you have a clear vision and begin each day with the end in mind.

   
Define your current location

The next step is to figure out your current location—where you are now in relationship to where you want to be. This is your chance to take a long, hard, critical look at your current family and parenting practices.

What are the positive aspects? What do you like? What is working really well? What is NOT going as well?

Remember honesty is critical if you are to get an accurate picture of where you are. You must first acknowledge and own your short-comings and problems before you can fix them.

          
Chart the route

Now it’s time to chart the route … determining the actions to take to reach your destination—your family, parenting, and/or child-related goals.

The key is to ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-specific), and to start with the one(s) you feel will make the biggest impact on your current situation.

When looking at potential actions or ways of achieving your goals, try to suspend judgment. Don’t worry about finding perfect answers or having all the answers … merely concentrate on creating a list of good ideas.

Imagine the possibilities!

With a Parenting Action Plan you author a unique and empowering vision for your family and parenting, and begin to take steps towards realizing that vision. Unlike many other parenting resources on the market which are intent on giving you the right answer, this one is filled with the answers that are right for you.

So consider developing a parenting action plan. It’s the closest thing to a parenting guidebook you’ll ever own … and the best part, is that it was written by the best expert on your goals, values and dreams … YOU!

          
About the Author:

Rob Stringer, BA, BEd, CPC is an award-winning Educator and Parenting & Personal Success Coach who is passionate about helping people live lives they LOVE! In addition to coaching kids, young adults, parents & families, Rob also appears regularly in magazines across North America, offers workshops & keynotes, and is the host of The Parenting with Intention Radio Hour. To find out more and subscribe to his free monthly newsletter, visit ParentingWithIntention.ca.

Want to learn more? Be sure to check out Rob’s ebook: Parenting with Intention: Living a life you LOVE! – A 12-part self-paced course (ebook) on creating a parenting action plan. (163 pages).