Parenting Inspiration

As May 8th approaches, I feel very fortunate to be celebrating Mother's Day as a mom. My son Owen has been an enormous source of strength through this difficult year. Everyday, Owen helps to keep me focused on the present – living in the moment.

I didn’t always have a strong desire to be a mom. Although the thought of not having children never really crossed my mind, when a number of my friends began having kids, I didn’t feel a strong urge to start a family of my own. This all changed in April 2006, when Lucas was born. Seeing the extreme joy that Lucas brought Mike and Sarah and experiencing feelings of unconditional love for my new nephew woke something inside me. In August 2007, Owen was born.

Having kids close in age gave Mike and me a lot to talk about. Most of our conversations centred on Lucas and Owen and the exciting things they were doing as they developed. We talked about the books and games they liked, and the music we played for them (Scrubadub U and the Curious George Soundtrack were mutual favourites).

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/scrubadub-u/id317272001  (to preview the song for free, mouse over the title and click play:  'Sometimes I'd Like to Be...')

In our conversations, Mike would often talk about Sarah. Mike had enormous respect for Sarah's parenting skills. "It's all Sarah" he would say when I asked him where he had learned the particular parent/child negotiation strategy he was using. Mike felt great comfort in knowing that he was leaving Lucas and Emily in Sarah's exceptionally capable and loving hands.

Below is one of my favourite pictures of Mike and me proudly holding our little boys, taken just after Owen was born.

Thank you Mike, Sarah, Lucas and later Emily for inspiring me to be a mom!