Reactive vs Proactive Parenting

Reactive parenting feels like putting out fires all day. It is refereeing the kids fights constantly. It is giving them what they want when they want it all day long. It is full on exhausting! Proactive parenting is more methodical. It is planning for problems and solving them beforehand. One of our hats as a mom among so many is the customer service agent. We are where the complaints come and the problems are solved. The more we can anticipate and solve beforehand, the less reactive time there needs to be. We can feel peace amidst the chaos by proactively studying the patterns in our families and solving the conflicts before they happen. When I am at the beck and call of my kids hunger all day long, I start to resent my role as the provider of their nourishment, which is one of my most important duties. When I plan ahead and schedule what to eat when, I am more calm about food and mealtimes. We know our kids limits and we can anticipate what time of night they go berserk and we don’t have any gas left in our tank also and plan the bedtime routine accordingly. I know that scheduling sounds daunting with little kids, dang near impossible but all the studies show that consistency and routine are so good for them. They have natural routines that if we work with them instead of against the grain, we can drop the power struggle wars and it’ll actually free up so much more time and bandwidth. We don’t have time to not do this actually. Test it out for a week. See what areas you can be more proactive with and give it a try. There is love, connection, and peace on the other end. If you’re too stuck in the muck of it all, I can help you! We can figure it out together. You can do this!