When Parenting & Your Self-Identity Intersect

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Seattle’s Best Coffee. All opinions are 100% mine.

The first day of school was a complete success for us. The kids were excited, yet there was a sense of calm. Closing the book on another summer is always bittersweet. I can’t help but to think, as Quinn turns nine next month, that we are halfway through our summers with him.

Man! Just writing that sentence creates a sick feeling in the pitt of my stomach. Despite knowing that, I find myself bouncing between “getting through” days and wanting to linger on every moment.

I really hate “getting through” mode. It isn’t a great feeling and life is far too short for it. Try breaking out of this mode with the Best Day List. I have found that being proactive vs reactive really helps to create the time and feeling I crave for me and my family.

I love when our morning is full of coffee and conversation. I have found it is no easy task to teach responsibility, to create a sense of ownership. We are working on shifting more and more responsibilities onto the children. It is such a delicate dance, creating that strong sense of self, ownership and responsibility while allowing them to hang on to their childhood.

As I enter into a new stage of parenting (one without any babies!), I realize that so much of my children having a strong sense of self, ownership and responsibility comes from me having those very same things. I am their role model.

What I want for them, I must create for myself. I cannot hide behind taking care of them as the reason I don’t take care of me. Make your excuses your reasons.

That truth is so hard to face. It feels so big at times.

Sometimes something so big is as simple as setting the alarm and creating a quiet time for you, your thoughts and a cup of coffee.

The quickest way to change is action. Adding things to our life always feels better than taking away. Such a small shift can get the momentum going in the right direction and move you from reactive to proactive.

I’ve have added: time, quiet and coffee, Friday family nights, established work hours for me, supplements, drinking half my weight (oz) in water, more fruits and vegetables.

Someday, over a cup of coffee I want to tell my children that I became everything I ever wanted to be because of them. That they gave me the courage to dream big. I want to tell them that becoming their mother, taught me things about myself I never knew.

What is your dream?

Tonight, set the alarm clock. Tomorrow, wake up before everyone else. Poor yourself a cup of coffee and make a plan to invest in you and your dreams. (grab a coupon for that coffee here ;)! )