Parenting is Metamorphosis \ stacker news ~BooksAndArticles

This just came to me while I was soaking in the ofuro (bathtub) with my daughter.

Parenting involves moulting, in which you shed off your old skin to make room for the new one. It presupposes growth and possibility.

But this metamorphosis doesn’t take into account the grieving process. What if I am perfectly fine with my old skin? Painting the town red, Slaying off-the-beaten path. Watching movies and tucking into buffets for free. Why should I swap it for a taut, tension-filled one?

But that’s no point in resisting moulting. The best thing I can do is to recover remnants of my old personality and merge it with my new identity.

Tonight, I think I cracked the parenting code. Was listening to a School of Greatness podcast on Fountain while luxuriating in the hot bathtub with my toddler on my lap. Given that she was running amok the whole of today, I cherished how she finally sat still. The five sats I received at the end just made this breakthrough all the more sweeter.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 28 Nov 2024

Yes, and the change continues throughout parenting.

When your kids are toddlers, you need to make every decision for them: What to eat, where to go, how to cross the street, etc.

By the time your kids are teens, your relationship will have morphed into something like a "coach"

Eventually, when they become independent adults, you will become more like "friends" with them.

At each step along the way you need to change in order to adapt....and sometimes it can be hard to let go of one phase and embrace the new one.