Now that the New Year is well underway, I wanted to give parents a gentle nudge to remember those resolutions you made – financial responsibility, health and fitness, new career, etc. I also want to encourage you to add one more resolution that is too often ignored. I want to encourage you to become an expert at intentional parenting.
Immaculate Conception
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that your child was not a product of an immaculate conception which means their conception was deliberate. As such, parenting should be just like conception – intentional.
Intentional parenting is a social imperative that is too often forgotten and ignored. Great kids don’t happen accidentally, they happen on purpose. Children evolve to become responsible adults and conscientious parents themselves when they learn from the training of intentional parents.
Remove the Clutter
How do we parent intentionally in today’s 24 hour technologically advance society? The answer is simple. We remove the clutter.
Fortunately, the same technological advancements that clutter life have also created things – or in this case applications – that allow us to remove some of the clutter so that we can parent intentionally. There are numerous applications that help us parent intentionally but I want to share two of my favorites.
Google+ Hangout
A year and a half ago, my son wanted to take a sabbatical from high school to travel to Brazil and pursue his dream of playing professional soccer. The thought of having my only child living 6,000 miles away from home was terrifying. If not for Google+ Hangout, my son would not have had the chance to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Thanks to Google+ Hangout, we were able to have real-life conversations via the videoconferencing feature. I was able to see his face, look him in the eyes so that I could assess his disposition and feelings. There were many occasions where we simply stayed online for hours as if he was at home sitting next to me.
Additionally, Google+ Hangout allowed up to ten family members to share in our get-together. Google+ Hangout was the next best thing to having him here with me. Google+ Hangout allowed me to remain an intentional parent while raising an international child. For whatever its worth, Google + Hangout works equally well with kids who live in the same home, city, state or country.
Evernote
I’ve been a raving fan of Evernote for years. In fact, recently while visiting Silicon Valley, I drove by the Evernote building. I wanted to go in and say thanks for the great tool but I forgot to do so. I suppose I should have used my Evernote app and set a reminder. Oh well, I’ll do better next time.
Despite my personal failing, Evernote is a great piece of technology that makes it easy to create order out of chaos. Evernote helps you remember things big and small.
I’ve used Evernote to take single or multi-shot photos of my son playing soccer and running track. I’ve created To Do Lists, grocery list, prepped for traveling…anything where lists and task reminders are useful. I’ve recorded presentations and speeches using Evernote.
Evernote even has a speech to text function so that I can get work done and focus on the road while rushing home to see my son. Evernote and it’s multitude of capabilities has helped me be more efficient so that I could parent intentionally. I believe you will find Evernote equally useful.
Intentional Parenting
As I mentioned previously, there are other great technological applications – in addition to Google + Hangout and Evernote – that help parents be more intentional. However, my purpose was not to inundate you with more clutter, you have access to enough clutter already. Instead, I simply wanted to share a couple of things that have helped me de-clutter and allowed me to parent intentionally.
Hopefully, I have stated succinctly or at least made reference to the fact that no matter what we do for a living or where we are in proximity to our children, there are tools in existence which make it possible for us to parent intentionally. There really is no excuse not to parent with purpose.
Remember great children are not the result of an immaculate conception, they are the creations of intentional parents.
What advice would you give others about how to parent intentionally?
