If you’re feeling frazzled as a parent with all that you’re juggling, here’s how to find your parenting superpowers so you can add more peace and joy to your life!
If you’ve been parenting for any length of time, you’ve probably discovered an inconvenient truth.
You can’t do it all!
And while this might seem obvious to plenty of folks, I admit that it took me YEARS before I truly understood and accepted this.
YEARS!
I honestly thought that parenting my children meant compiling the best resources, planning incredible adventures and activities, organizing fantastic get-togethers with friends, preparing fresh and healthy meals, and creating a rich and stimulating home learning environment.
Hmmm…
And I thought that I should be able to figure out how to do this all ON MY OWN!
Even typing this out makes me cringe as I recognize just how absurd this expectation is.
Nobody can do it all!
How to Find Your Parenting Superpowers
Once I accepted this, like REALLY started to accept this, I began to do things to help simplify and streamline my parenting.
What things exactly?
Outsourcing, lowering my expectations, relying on super simple meals, and cutting myself plenty of slack.
I also started paying attention to my superpowers.
What now?
My superpowers.
We all have them.
Maybe you’re really funny and infuse humor throughout your day.
This is a superpower.
Or maybe you have the gift of hospitality and enjoy hosting gatherings in your home.
Another superpower.
Maybe you love gardening or painting, planning or organizing, baking or sewing.
Superpowers!
So think about it for a minute, what are YOUR superpowers?
It’s easy to list things that we feel like we should be good at or areas we want to be good in.
But this isn’t helpful!
Look, I WANT my superpower to be singing like Sara Barellies. I’d love it if I could write the way that Sue Monk Kidd writes. I’d be over-the-flipping moon if I was as hilarious as Melissa McCarthy.
Alas, I have not been gifted with these superpowers.
Instead, my strengths lie within the realm of being a good listener, enthusiastically supporting the people in my life, paying attention to details, researching and planning, and finding creative ways to enhance our everyday living.
These are my superpowers.
If you’re having trouble identifying your unique strengths, you may find it helpful to think about things you enjoy doing. Our strengths are often infused within activities we enjoy and that feel natural to us. That feeling we get when we’re “in the zone” or “in the flow” and lose track of time. These types of activities.
For me, this looks like drawing, painting, reading, writing, baking, being outside, and traveling. When I factor my superpowers and the activities I truly enjoy into our home environment, things flow much more smoothly and parenting becomes much more enjoyable.
Writing genuine, encouraging notes to loved ones, doing creative projects with my kids, having interesting conversations, baking for friends and family, and arranging activities are some of the ways I use my superpowers.
Now, this might look VERY different from your superpowers!
Notice that I didn’t say I love to cook dinner, run errands, do CrossFit, or hang out in areas with large crowds.
Consistency, discipline, stamina, and extroversion are NOT my superpowers.
And recognizing this means I’m much kinder to myself (for you know, being human!) and allows me to enjoy homeschooling and my family so much more.
The key is to focus on your STRENGTHS and outsource the rest (as much as you can)!
So what are your unique strengths?
What are YOUR superpowers?
If you take the time to identify what they are, I promise you, it has the power to be a GAME CHANGER in your relationship with your kids and your overall peace of mind.
If you’re in need of other resources to help you simplify and organize, check out these posts:
If you care to share, I’d love to know what your superpowers are. So comment below!
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