​Lisa here. We all know parenting doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When your child arrives, you don’t suddenly know everything there is to know about parenting. But you do know some things. Some of it you remember learning, looking up, or being directly taught in some way. But there are other things that you know that you have no idea where you learned them. 
 
Just like with anything else, we’re influenced by what we learn from observing and interacting with other people. Your parenting has been influenced by a number of people. Just off the top of your head, who first comes to mind when you consider who has influenced your parenting? 

​Your first thoughts were probably of people who were close to you- your own parents or caregivers, aunts and uncles, parents of friends, friends who have kids of their own, etc. Sometimes people influence you in positive ways. For instance, you may like the way your friend handled a difficult interaction with their kids and file that away for a time when you may face a similar situation. Other times, you take away things you plan to avoid. You may have that list of things that your parents said or did that you swear you will never do (“Because I said so.” Sound familiar?). 
 
But, what about other, more subtle influences? Do you have some parenting role models from pop culture, television, books, or movies? Do you remember watching something and thinking that when you have kids, you want to be a parent like so-and-so from your favorite TV show? When working with parents, Sarah and I will often use examples from TV shows to illustrate a point. Those examples resonate with parents and will often spark their own recollections of fictional parents who influence their own parenting behaviors.

Knowing who has influenced you can help you gain clarity about your own parenting. If you are noticing yourself saying or doing things that are inconsistent with your true parenting values, take a minute to think about where those specific behaviors came from. Are you saying some of those things your parents said to you? Are you trying to force yourself into an image you’ve seen on TV? If so, it’s probably time to make some adjustments. 
 
The good news is you can always pick new role models. Are there people in your life who make you feel inspired as a parent? Are there people whose parenting style matches well with your parenting values? Spend some time talking with them about how and why they parent the way they do. You’ll likely find some new ideas that resonate with your parenting values or figure out how to implement parenting behaviors you’ve wanted to try but were unsure of how to make them work.  
 
Also, it’s always great to look back on the role models you’ve collected along the way. See what still works for you. As with most things, take what you need and leave the rest.

​You’ve got this!

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​Lisa here. Last week, Sarah got you to think about how you define success as a parent. This week, I want you to think about how satisfied you are as a parent.  Success and satisfaction are related but not identical concepts. Oxford Languages defines satisfaction as “fulfillment of one's wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this.” 

​In a perfect world, when we are successful according to our personal metrics, we are also satisfied. That’s what happens a lot of the time. Unfortunately, in the real world, that’s not always the case. Most of us have accomplished a goal, checked off everything on our to do list, or finished a project we’ve been working on and then felt let down when we did not feel satisfied. 
 
That happens with parenting too. Last week you thought about how you personally define success as a parent. But when you have successes as a parent, how often are they accompanied by feelings of satisfaction? Do you only feel satisfied with your parenting when you experience a success? Or are there times when things are not going well with your kids or with your co-parent that you still feel satisfied as a parent?
 
Satisfaction can be tied to individual parenting wins (successes) or to your overall feelings about your parenting. You’re not likely to feel super successful when your child is not listening or is having a tantrum in the middle of the grocery store, but what if you take a step back and consider your parenting overall? Yes, they’re having a meltdown in the moment, but otherwise their behavior has been great all week. Is there some satisfaction there? Or maybe your teenager does not want to be bothered with you today, but last weekend they were happy to spend time with you and you enjoyed each other’s company. Parenting satisfaction is often tied more to the overall view than to the in-the-moment occurrences. 
 
Here are some other things to consider when thinking about parenting satisfaction. 

• When I take a step back, do I feel like I’m doing a good job? 
  • This is where some of those parenting success metrics come in. If you’re feeling successful, you have a better chance of also feeling satisfied. 
  • Alternatively, you may focus less on the specifics and more on how you feel as a parent. Remember, satisfaction is a feeling, and you may not be able to fully explain why you feel the way you do. 

• How often do you think about your level of parenting satisfaction? Is it only when you’re feeling unsatisfied or like something is wrong? Do you periodically check in with yourself to gauge how you’re feeling about your parenting?
• If you’re feeling unsatisfied, why? What’s not satisfying? How can you make adjustments to increase your satisfaction?
  • Some parents get so bogged down in the day-to-day that they stop enjoying their kids, which decreases satisfaction. 
  • Sometimes co-parents are not on the same page. When this happens to often, parenting satisfaction can decrease.
  • When arguments or disagreements with your kids are more frequent, you might feel less satisfied. 

 
A major factor in your parenting satisfaction is whether your parenting behaviors are in line with your parenting values. If you are focusing on things that are not as important to you, it makes sense that you feel less satisfied as a parent. If you’ve found that you’ve drifted from your parenting values, give some thought to how you will get back on track so that you can find some joy in parenting again. 

Our year-end-review blog post (12/27/2022) gives some tips on how to determine your values and set your priorities as a parent. Now might be a good time to revisit (or visit for the first time) those ideas to see if you’re matching your behaviors with your values. Are your priorities the same as they were in December? What do you need to add, drop, or change to increase your parenting satisfaction? Remember, you don’t need to make massive changes. Small adjustments can lead to big increases in your parenting satisfaction.

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Sarah here. We hope that you found last week’s blog on managing parent guilt helpful. Whether your kids are triggering your parent guilt or you are, it’s quite possible that your sense of guilt ties into your sense of success as a parent. So today, we’re talking about how you define success as a parent.

Oxford Languages defines success in part as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” Sounds straightforward, right? Maybe not. If we’re talking about success as a parent, do you consider whether you accomplished a specific goal? Or do you evaluate whether you’re accomplishing your general purpose as a parent? But then that begs the question…what’s your general purpose as a parent?  
 
Overall, most parents want their children to grow up feeling loved. Most parents hope to raise kids who become independent and (you guessed it) successful. But rather than focusing on how we define success or general ways other people talk about success, we wanted you to reflect on your own personal metric of success as a parent.  
 
Read through the questions that follow and notice what comes to mind. There aren’t “right” or “wrong” answers here. You don’t need to “think hard” about the questions- these are things that you’ll likely have immediate thoughts about, so just notice the first thoughts that show up. If you’d like, you can jot down your answers, but no pressure. 

• Is your success as a parent tied to how you feel as a parent?
  • Is it about your feelings of love, pride in your children, or happiness? Maybe it’s feeling a sense of peace or feeling confident as a parent?
  • Is your success as a parent tied to the feelings you don’t have? For example, maybe success is about not feeling overwhelmed or uncertain, not doubting yourself.
• Is your success as a parent tied to what you do (your behavior) as a parent?
  • Is it about actions like spending time together in general or spending “quality time” with them? Maybe it relates to activities like reading to them, or giving them opportunities or life experiences? What about buying things for them- whether that means buying necessities or purchasing things they want?
  • Is your success about your parenting behaviors- how you manage your child’s behavior, your discipline choices, how you speak to your child, whether you have challenging conversations with your child?
• Is your success as a parent tied how your child(ren) feel?
  • Is it about your child(ren) feeling generally happy, loved, or safe? Feeling happy or loved in a specific moment? Is it about them feeling at ease or being confident?
  • Is your success about the feelings your child(ren) don’t have? For example, maybe it’s about your children not feeling scared or stressed, not feeling upset or insecure?
• Is your success as a parent tied to how your child(ren) behave?
  • Is your success about your child(ren)’s actions in a given situation? About how they behave overall? Is it tied to them behaving or not behaving in a particular way? 
  • Is your success related to your child(ren)’s compliance with rules? Maybe it’s about how they respond to your authority or the authority of others?
  • Is your success tied to how your child(ren) manage their own successes and failures?

Think about whether the ways you currently define success as a parent are the only metrics that matter. Maybe you’re so focused on your family feeling loved that you haven’t really focused on how you feel. Maybe you’ve been so invested in your children being “well-behaved” that you haven’t really considered how they feel. It may also be helpful to consider whether your metrics of success actually matter to you. Sometimes, we’re so focused on what things look like from the outside (e.g., how our children behave), we don’t consider what they feel like on the inside (e.g., you feel stressed and upset with your children all the time, you’re constantly focusing on correcting their behavior).