ON PARENTING

Parenting: I will have to say it’s one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. I’ve always admired my mother’s strength raising six children without much help and then having to raise two more children when my sister died, the unconditional love and selfless support she gave each of us was astronomical.

I often asked myself, “How did Mommy do it, without breaking down and giving up?” Although my parents were married, my father wasn’t emotionally present and it couldn’t have been as easy for my Mom to maintain the household while raising six children and still having to be devotedly available for each of us. I realized at very young age that there was no hardship that deterred her from being an amazing mother: spending quality time with us at the museums, at Central Park letting me and my twin climb the rocks and lovingly caring when we accidentally hurt ourselves, helping us with homework after long days at work and all while teaching us values – despite her own personal needs. Above all things, the most valuable jewel my mother taught us was how to love our Creator and through Him all is possible.

As I look at my journey through parenting I have realized I took some of her amazing qualities of loving on my children, putting their education high on the priority list, exposing them to other parts of the world (something we didn’t get to enjoy as children because we couldn’t afford it) Giving them a stable home and always spending time communicating with them was very important to me. Although I regret certain things during my journey as a parent, I’ve realized sacrifices had to be made so that my children could have better opportunities in life than I did. See, it’s all connected my mother made sacrifices so we could dream big and have more exposure and choices and I did the same for my children. Every generation should do better than the last generation. After all, we are the ones that made the decision to bring life into the world, which means we must make some tough decisions as parents and we may have some regrets because we missed out on some moments. We must leave our children with a stronger foundation than ours that’s the only way each generation can elevate higher than the last. Life as a parent will be challenging but still will bring you many joys.

Don’t be so hard on yourself none of these children come with manuals so all we can do is learn from our parents and other parents with a twist of what our vision is of being a supportive and balanced parent.

Please subscribe to my podcast, Hedge Fund to Happiness and on Monday I have a new episode where I talk more about parenting and raising children.

Continue to stand strong,

Andrea Jackson