‘It’s hard work! There will be days you scream, yell, threaten and ask, ‘Is this even worth it?’: Mom talks about conscious parenting, ‘Discipline and gentleness can coexist’

“Conscious parenting is not the easy way out. It’s not letting your child walk all over you, or get their way. Discipline and gentleness can coexist.

Gentle parenting is a conscious effort to treat children as humans having all the same emotions and experiences we have as adults, knowing they are without any of the tools or mental capacities to do so.

It takes all of my strength to choose peace, grace, and gentleness when my child is not behaving the way I wish she would, but I know doing so is teaching her to be the same way with others.

The greatest way to teach your children how to be compassionate, loving, kind, and gracious is to SHOW them how.

Model the behavior you want your children to have. Why WOULDN’T your child scream and yell when you don’t do what they want you to if that’s exactly how you react to them doing the same?

Our children need us to show them it’s okay to feel, to make mistakes, to change their minds, and to be exactly who they intrinsically are. So for me, this way of parenting just makes sense.

It’s hard work! You’ll have to heal yourself, relive childhood traumas, and reparent yourself…there will be days you scream, yell, threaten and ask, ‘Is this even worth it?’

But then, there will be a day you catch your three-year-old stopping themselves from hitting their sister by taking deep breaths and counting to 4, and realize it truly is.

Parenting is hard, period. No matter how you choose to parent, know what is right for you isn’t always right for someone else. Every child is different and so is every parent. Let’s support one another no matter what!”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Rachael Krupski of Long Island, NY. You can follow her journey on Instagram and her blog. Submit your own story here, and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.

Read more from Rachael here:

‘Collectively, we are going through one of the hardest times in history. Individually, we are all fighting our own battles others know nothing about.’: Burnt out mom urges ‘we can do hard things’

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‘She’s gonna have to get over it!’ Then I thought to myself, ‘What about when I’m upset?’: Mom to daughter with anxiety urges ‘stop asking kids to act more maturely than we do’

‘What do you see in this photo? A family enjoying their holiday traditions? A mother’s joy for her baby’s and toddler’s first magical Christmas? A happy family?’: Mom shares battle with postpartum depression

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