Purposeful Parenting

As soon as we made our decision to stay in the city and homeschool, I felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted. It felt like the perfect choice for us. And I almost immediately began to see my parenting role in a new and far more productive, fulfilling way.

While I had been actively involved in teaching my kids, I had increasingly felt that what I was teaching them or providing them would be a means to an end: a way of preparing them for success in pre-school and beyond. I was also getting stressed about which pre-school to select and none of them appealed to me for a variety of reasons, including days that seemed too long, curricula that seemed too rigid, costs that seemed too extreme, and parental expectations that seemed too unreasonable (like contributing a hefty "donation" in addition to a $25,000 preschool tuition or participating in lots of parent-only socials and fundraisers--that is, if you can even get your child accepted into a private urban preschool).

As our focus shifted toward homeschooling, I saw things with much greater clarity and ease. I recognized and sought out learning moments in a much more meaningful and rewarding way. Learning is now learning for learning's sake.

"Purposeful Parenting" is far more enriching than more "Preparatory Parenting" I was practicing previously.