Patience is one important mindset that I have practiced these last years while being a new parent. I hear a lot of parents wanting to be more patient; like all changes it starts with a thought and in this case results in a patient parent mindset.

I used to be a super on top of it, do it all, be there early, and even push real hard kind of person. I still like to be, and am, on time. But watching my little one be a little one and marvel at the simplest little things is something that I treasure and want to allow her the space to explore.

When I step back and think about the person I want to be and showing her how to be in the world – I want patience and presence to be above all.

To be a patient parent takes planning for all the messes and chaos and stops; it means to allow for the messy-ness of life to be ok. It means to intentionally think that “nothing has gone wrong” when a glass falls off the counter and shatters or when a kid falls and screams bloody murder.

It is an option to react as if something tragic has happened; and it is also an option to embody patience, acceptance, and presence.

In the first year of having my little one, my brain wanted to save her from everything, it was on high alert. But I quickly saw and decided that I didn’t want to place that way of being in the world inside her. Which meant that I had to manage my default reactions, my default panic, my default thoughts of “something is horribly wrong”.

I am grateful that I choose to practice patience as a parent to my little one because it gave me the opportunity to become a more patient person to myself.

“Kids will perfect you, IF you let them.”