What is No Regrets Parenting?
No Regrets Parenting is a fresh, commonsense approach to parenting for those of you who shudder at the thought of your kids growing up too fast, leaving for college, becoming young adults. No Regrets Parenting arms you with the tools you need to meet those eventualities with contentment and fulfillment. Contentment that comes with knowing you were there, with your kids, every moment that you could have been, and fulfillment that comes with knowing you created new, cherished moments that otherwise might have been lost in the quest for expediency. In fact, if you learn and apply the basics of No Regrets Parenting, you will greet your children’s departure with a profound sense of satisfaction, knowing you have given them what they need to succeed, and given yourself what you need to feel like a successful parent. To be sure, you’ll gaze into their empty bedrooms and miss them terribly when they leave home. But you won’t have missed them when they were still at home.
No Regrets Parenting is a blog (you’re here!), tweets (@NoRegretsParent), Facebook posts , and yes, a brand new book (www.NoRegretsParenting.com), for busy parents in our busy times.
It’s true that each day with young kids can feel like a week, and each week like a month. But as every new birthday passes, childhood seems to be streaking by at warp speed. Five month-olds become five year-olds and then 15 year olds in the blink of an eye. The colorful mobiles hanging from their cribs morph into tricycles, which morph into driving permits. Poof! Sunrise, Sunset. The No Regrets Parenting approach maximizes and optimizes the time you spend with your kids – no matter how chaotic your own life might be. The goal – someday you will be able to look back and take pride in knowing that you squeezed every moment and memory out of your kids’ childhoods and that your kids’ memories of you are vivid and loving.
Juggling family and professional lives is not a course taught in high school or college – many parents find the challenges of being all things to all people daunting. No Regrets Parenting teaches parents to experience the joy and depth of the parenting experience amidst the chaos and choreography of daily routines. Car pool, bath time, soccer practice, homework, dinner hour, and sleepovers can all become more than just obligations to overcome in getting through the day. They can be opportunities for intimate and meaningful time – quality time – with young kids. It’s not how much time you have with your kids, but how you spend the time you have that matters in the life and legacy of a young family. No Regrets Parenting readjusts your perspectives and priorities, helping you find the time to get it all done and still feel good about your kids’ childhood.
No Regrets Parenting is time management with kids, from crib through college. But it’s not like other “time management strategies” that are geared for efficiency with kids rather than for intimacy with them, for organizing rather than optimizing time with your kids. How to get everything done is not the same as how to make the time with your kids meaningful and memorable. No Regrets Parenting is about capturing the precious moments of parenting that otherwise are lost in the name of efficiency. It will help you navigate the mundane, exhausting routines of parenthood, and show you how to transform those routines into special parenting events. It’s all about redefining “quality time,” and that means understanding the important difference between minutes and moments.
The days are long, but the years are short. And now is the time.
Your book is exactly the kind of book about parenting I have been looking for. I am buying it this Friday!