Mother Muses Monday - starts today!

So today I begin my musings about motherhood. I have brainstormed lots of topics that hopefully are interesting to you - from abstract parental vision to concrete issue involving schooling and behavior, to making time for art while raising kids.

To kick off my Mother Muses column I wanted to share a little about my parenting philosophy. It is not very concrete but that way you can see where I am coming from.

3 of my 5 kids

You know, I can't really talk of my parenting without including my husband, Mark. He and I are a team...... Well we see our kids as individuals. Due respect and assistance. We see that they need to learn to navigate this world ‘cause one day they will be fully functioning members of society.  And that it is our job to get them there, as parents, teachers, guides and later friends.

We believe it is our job to discern what it is they need to learn about and are exposed to as they grow. We see it as our special privilege to do this, something that takes time and effort, but that is worth every morsel. Our parenting comes before everything else we do with our time ~ art and jobs included. So we constantly seek out ways to help develop their character and educate their minds.

But also we see that they are not ours to boss around and make them into people they were not designed to be. Neither do we see them as appendages meant to make us look good. So we tread carefully as we parent. God has a plan for each of our kids and we will do everything in our power to not mess that up, but to help bring that plan to fruition!

In our search for the right parenting path we look for wisdom in the Bible, through talking with friends and through our constant analysis of our kid’s personalities and actions, gifts and interests. Really, Mark and I go on weekly dates and spend a whole lot of time talking about the kids!

We really do enjoy our kids. They are all so different, so interesting to us, so beautiful, so awesome. We feel deeply lucky, blessed and all other good things to have each of our five children. We know them, we have fun with them. We strive to show them the best things in the world - art, culture, academics, books, media, friends, church, travel, family, Biblical truth.  We strive to make them feel loved, secure, free and utterly accepted.

Bottom line is that we try to actively love our kids, each independently, but also as part of the Cole family. Everything we do is steeped in love, love, love. Love covering our scheduling decisions, our tone of voice, our soothing when we get tired or mad. Love covering our plans, our fun activities, our discipline of poor behaviors and habits. Love in our prayers for them.

Yes, prayers. I pray for my kids daily. I thank God for their lives, I pray for their health and safety (body, mind and spirit) and that they will be sheltered from my bad qualities and that I will be a good Mommy.

So that is the outline, the heavy stuff. Next week I hope to be a little more light hearted. But then again, I am not a particularly light hearted person, especially when it comes to my kids! So we’ll see!

If you have any questions or comments on what I say here, please leave them. I may not be able to respond to every comment, but I read them and if you ask a question I will get back to you. I also would love to hear from you. I would love to know your parenting philosophy. Perhaps consider sharing it on your blog too? Let me know.

(Oh, I am so excited I have a 5 minute video lined up for you on Workshop Wednesday!)