The Thing We Need to Give to Other Parents

Parenting is not easy.

The whole thing starts in perhaps the craziest way. You’re at the hospital in a room filled with doctors and nurses and experts. There’s commotion during the delivery but you’re okay because you’ve got so much help in that moment.

Then, in what feels like a matter of seconds, a doctor hands you the baby and essentially says, “Good luck with this,” and the room empties. You find yourself standing there completely alone and unprepared for this child you are apparently in charge of.

It only gets crazier from there as you raise this tiny human.

Most of the time, these posts I write are about how we should treat ourselves and our kids, but not today. Today I want to quickly talk about how we should treat other parents.

It’s so easy to judge each other. It’s so easy to criticize or analyze another parent. “Can you believe they spent that much on their kid’s birthday? That’s crazy. It was so over the top.” It’s so easy to cut down.

But what if instead, what every parent needs to give to every other parent is really simple? What if the thing we need the most is grace?

What if the next time a parent in your neighborhood makes a mistake, you give them grace instead of judgment? What if the next time a parent from your kid’s class at school forgets the snack for the party, you give them grace? What if the next time the parent is late dropping off your kid after a sleepover, you give them grace?

Parenting has a million possible moments that require grace.

Implementing this idea will not be difficult. I promise, this week you’ll see a situation that needs grace. You will not need to wait long to put it into practice.

Parenting is not easy, but supporting each other is.

All it takes is a little grace.