A Fresh Perspective for Parents Feeling Guilt and Worry
Today I was reviewing some of my notes from Gallup’s Strengths Based Parenting book by Mary Reckmeyer. I was looking through these notes hoping to find a fresh perspective to help with a dilemma I’m facing in my role as a sports dad who also coaches my kids.
No matter how much I try to separate my role as dad and my role as coach, I continue to struggle in this area. Reckmeyer has a nice quote that I found reassuring as I work through this recent self-doubt:
As a parent, you have to tailor your talents to the job of parenting. And you might often feel you’re failing – full of guilt and worry. Instead of obsessing about your areas of weakness, spend more time enjoying your children. You can accomplish more if you adapt your parenting approach to fit your talents, just as some people have done with their careers.
The two takeaways from this quote for any parent going through something similar to me right now are this.
- The only way to adapt your parenting approach to fit your talents is to know your talents. So if you haven’t taken the StrengthsFinder assessment, you should.
- When you start feeling guilt and worry as a result of your parenting, find some time to put everything else in life on pause, and do something with your children that you both enjoy doing together. Something that is guilt free, stress free, and brings the best out of you.