Oh my goodness, I feel sooooo blessed to have gotten to speak to her via phone last night. I used up probably a lil over an hour of her time, but she was so sweet and kind. Stupid me, I live on the west coast and it didnt dawn on me that I was calling her at 10pm East coast time. Who on earth would answer so cheerfully at 10 pm to chat with someone wanting to pick your brain about peaceful parenting and unschooling. She helped me so much with reminding me to appreciate my kids for their uniqueness, take care of myself in order to keep up with peaceful parenting as its involved and can burn you out, and some of the challenges I was having with parenting some undesirable behaviours. She reminded me that peaceful parenting isnt child led behavior(unschooling is child-led learning, but parenting differs) and that there needs to be a way to meet every one's needs in the home. each child cannot always have their own way, just as I cant so I need to mindfully parent to get that balance and have them help come up with ways to make sure every ones needs are being met. She used the example with Wyatt's recent sleeping issue., She says, "If Wyatt's need is not being able to sleep, your need is sleep, compromise by sleeping together in sleeping bags on the living room floor or having him sleep on your floor or whatever works to gently get him back to sleep so you can sleep!" BINGO! This is what I needed to hear. It is so helpful to know this type of parenting isnt a kids draining the life out of mom free for all. Its peacefully meeting every one's needs, saying yes often, living in joy and happiness, living in a teaching mode, ready to guide and help my children throughout the days. I just think Dayna is amazing and can't say enough praises for how she handles her kids, their education, and her constant glass half-ful attitude. I really want to be that way and I find I am that way so much more now than I ever was. She said, " if you parent the way you WANT to 51% of the time, your doing great!" what a great way to look at it and I know I am hitting for than 50% of the time so that makes me happy and I feel like a better mom today. I love how she never picks and chooses negative in her kids, she picks and chooses positives in them and celebrates those things and works on those things. I look forward to talking to her again and getting more tips and advice! Here's her blog and her other website to find her videos and other things about her and her family.
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Okay...this so made me cry...I have been doing peaceful parenting with my babies for a few months now, and lord the differnce I saw in them was AMAZING!!! All of a sudden, school starts back up (hmmm....maybe this is another reason to homeschool??!!), and I have been frazled, stressed, and just so short on time, I have been nitpicking the kids, and with one kid in particular, focusing too much on the negative, instead of the positive. Reading this has helped me remember to change that ASAP, and get back to where we were before. This is just what I needed, so thank you for sharing!!
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