Parenting. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. It’s one heck of a rollercoaster ride, with the biggest of thrills, the highest of highs, plus the most unexpected drops, terrors and surprises.
And despite the squagillions of books that have been written on the topic, still, nothing really prepares you for that moment you are handed your child and given full responsibility for the life of a little human.
Welcome to The One Thing! Every week we’re bringing you the one nugget of info that you need to know or didn’t know you needed to know! Whether it’s a tip to make your life a little easier, a pearl of wisdom, something to make you think, or maybe something to make you laugh, The One Thing is here to serve you every Friday!
If you’ve got a suggestion or submission for The One Thing, please send your thoughts to alice@capsulenz.com. We’d love to hear from you!
This week we talk to parenting expert Emily Writes who tells us the One Thing she wishes she knew about parenting BEFORE she was in it.
“I wish I had of known that even when it’s hard, it’s still really beautiful,” she says.
‘I think I had this real binary about what parenting would be like, that it would either be perfect, or, once I started into parenting and found it so challenging, I sometimes had these dark days where I was like, nothing is good about parenting. I think now, with a decade of parenting behind me, I recognise that there’s so much joy and heartache and chaos and beauty, and it’s much more dynamic and different and complex than I thought it was going to be.”
Emily says that had she had she gone into parenting with less of a binary view – focusing on either perfection or imperfection – she may have had an easier time navigating those first few years.
“Now I have the mindset that it’s not one thing or the other – it’s this very rich, beautiful tapestry of life experiences that I’ve been so lucky to have.”
What’s your one thing? Tell us at alice@capsulenz.com