Today I attended that last PTA meeting of the year; it was my last as the president elect. Next year I will be at the helm with so very many capable people serving as the sails and the masts and the anchor and rudder. We will work together to keep up the tradition of greatness that has come before us. Nearly everyone has more experience and skills than I do. I am humbled that they have enough faith in me to have this opportunity. And by opportunity I mean I get to learn from and rub shoulders with such wonderful people who so willingly give whatever they have.
As part of the meeting there some well deserved thank you's. Principal Theler shared expressed his gratitude for what the PTA mom's as well a his teachers and staff do at the school, sharing that many of the things that get done are not done by him, but he gets credit for doing it.
But the part that he shared that hit home to me the most was what he has learned from being a parent for nearly 17 years. At first, he said, he was worried about his children doing what was right. He may not have corrected his children with the kind tone he has since learned how to use. He shared how he is among the oldest three children in his family, there is a gap and then another three. He remarked how he and his siblings would comment on how their parents had changed and that they must have gotten tired of putting up the fight by the time the last three came around.
He now feels like they had learned how to be kinder and to let certain things get to them. I have had similar thoughts. I, being the oldest, felt like my parents must have been worn out by the time the younger kids came along too. Now that I have both older and younger kids, I realize that is is learning and growing that have happened in me as well as the other parents.
I have never really wished I could go back and redo parts of my life except for parenting. I have often wished I could keep what I know and go back and re-parent my children. They would be so much better off the second time around! There are so many things I would not be so uptight about. My younger children have benefited from what I have learned from my older ones. I am a much more relaxed parent with the last two than I was with the first three.
I try to remember that as we go through things for the first time with Spencer. My dad used to call me the "guinea pig;" poor Spencer is mine. Even Taylor benefits from the things I learned from parenting Spencer. There is one thing that the younger kids wish I may not have learned, and that is that children will not be allowed to have their own pets! Spencer got to have a fish tank. Taylor has wanted a snake, the girls rodents or cats, but not that we are down to our dog, Sadie. That will be it for the pet department.
Thank goodness children are reliant and that mine are turning out very well in spite of my mistakes. I'm grateful to God that He teaches me and inspires me to do or say things I would not have come up with on my own and that He forgives me and allows me to keep on growing. I'm grateful for loving, forgiving children too. There are so many things I have learned as a parent. Elder Bednar taught in April 2014 General Conference that it is the loads we bear that give us enough traction to make it safely through this life and into the next. At times the parenting load has been seemingly too much to bear, but I know that the growth I have experienced because of it has been part of my personal journey here.
As part of the meeting there some well deserved thank you's. Principal Theler shared expressed his gratitude for what the PTA mom's as well a his teachers and staff do at the school, sharing that many of the things that get done are not done by him, but he gets credit for doing it.
But the part that he shared that hit home to me the most was what he has learned from being a parent for nearly 17 years. At first, he said, he was worried about his children doing what was right. He may not have corrected his children with the kind tone he has since learned how to use. He shared how he is among the oldest three children in his family, there is a gap and then another three. He remarked how he and his siblings would comment on how their parents had changed and that they must have gotten tired of putting up the fight by the time the last three came around.
He now feels like they had learned how to be kinder and to let certain things get to them. I have had similar thoughts. I, being the oldest, felt like my parents must have been worn out by the time the younger kids came along too. Now that I have both older and younger kids, I realize that is is learning and growing that have happened in me as well as the other parents.
I have never really wished I could go back and redo parts of my life except for parenting. I have often wished I could keep what I know and go back and re-parent my children. They would be so much better off the second time around! There are so many things I would not be so uptight about. My younger children have benefited from what I have learned from my older ones. I am a much more relaxed parent with the last two than I was with the first three.
I try to remember that as we go through things for the first time with Spencer. My dad used to call me the "guinea pig;" poor Spencer is mine. Even Taylor benefits from the things I learned from parenting Spencer. There is one thing that the younger kids wish I may not have learned, and that is that children will not be allowed to have their own pets! Spencer got to have a fish tank. Taylor has wanted a snake, the girls rodents or cats, but not that we are down to our dog, Sadie. That will be it for the pet department.
Thank goodness children are reliant and that mine are turning out very well in spite of my mistakes. I'm grateful to God that He teaches me and inspires me to do or say things I would not have come up with on my own and that He forgives me and allows me to keep on growing. I'm grateful for loving, forgiving children too. There are so many things I have learned as a parent. Elder Bednar taught in April 2014 General Conference that it is the loads we bear that give us enough traction to make it safely through this life and into the next. At times the parenting load has been seemingly too much to bear, but I know that the growth I have experienced because of it has been part of my personal journey here.
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