care of the self

mother

parenthood

parenting

is grounded in this idea: not me first, but me too.

Taking care of myself doesn't mean 'me first.' It means me, too.

's job is not to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.

It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.

is not losing ourselves. It is finding parts of ourselves we never knew existed.

We don't lose ourselves in parenthood. We find parts of ourselves we never knew existed.

is not about perfection. It is about learning together to live well in an imperfect world, loving each other despite or even because of our imperfections, and growing as humans while we grow our little humans, those are the goals of gentle parenting.

Parenting has nothing to do with perfection. Perfection isn’t even the goal, not for us, not for our children. Learning together to live well in an imperfect world, loving each other despite or even because of our imperfections, and growing as humans while we grow our little humans, those are the goals of gentle parenting. So don’t ask yourself at the end of the day if you did everything right. Ask yourself what you learned and how well you loved, then grow from your answer. That is perfect parenting.

is not about toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's about raising children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.

L.R. KnostThinkers

L.R. Knost