Bernadette asked me how I would define “conscious parenting.” Here’s my answer…

I would say that it’s definitely more a way of being than any sort of method or style of parenting. It’s about being awake and alive to the experience of connecting with yourself and your children in the midst of the parenting journey. It’s about seeing it as a journey in the first place with ebbs and flows, ups and downs, twists and turns, and more bodily fluids then you could ever imagine – guaranteed! It’s about using all of the moments – blissful, challenging, messy, frustrating, overwhelming, freaking out, swelling with pride, bursting with love, too tired to think, wanting to run away, can’t get close enough, wishing you could literally take just one bite of that delicious little being! – moments and using them to feel more deeply into yourself. Using your thoughts and feelings to discover who YOU are and in turn connect with and see who your children are so they can unfold into their most healthy and whole selves. Finally, it’s about constantly asking the four big questions: What do I need? What does each child need? What does our partnership need? And, what does our family need? It is certainly not about sleeping with or without your children, nursing for a certain amount of time, or doing some thing because it’s what someone else says you should do. No no, conscious parenting is about tuning in to your feelings, doing what feels right to you, finding ways to move toward balance, choosing connection, living with joy and gratitude, letting your love spill out all over the place, adopting an attitude of self-reflection, having loads and loads of compassion for yourself, your partner and your children and recognizing that there is no such thing as a perfect parent or a perfect child (and really, who would want that anyway?) and yet, when you really stop and think about it, it’s all just perfect in it’s own way.