Do you have any parenting regrets?
I've never been one to walk around feeling guilty about this or that, because I've always thought that guilt was a wasted emotion. Why not instead just make the changes needed and move on? And I also don't generally kick myself for things I should've done, because again, it makes more sense to just do your best moving forward. As Melinda, who I met at Expo West last year says, “When you know better, you do better.” That's a famous quote for a reason, it gives us the grace we need to forgive ourselves and move on.
Sometimes our head knows things that our heart doesn't, though, so my two biggest parenting regrets do cause me to throw out the ‘if onlys” now and then…
1. How I wish I'd have known that what I eat before, during and after pregnancy, and what we feed our kids as they grow, really DOES matter.
I clearly remember thinking when I was pregnant for the first time that what I was eating really wasn't that big of a deal. (I can't even believe now how DUMB I was!) When I struggled with nursing our son, I was SO sad when I had to start supplementing with formula, not because of the vast differences in nutritional value for our son (I didn't know about that yet), but because I wanted that extra bond and didn't have a connection with anyone at the time who had experience with it and could help me make it work. As he grew I gave that nasty boxed rice cereal, and then later fast food way too often and the sugar bomb boxes of ZERO nutrition breakfast dessert cereal every morning (What's so bad about breakfast cereals?), I really didn't think it made that much of a difference. Ugh.
How much easier would learning have come to our kids had we known better? Would we ever have gone through the rough year of toddler tantrums with our other son? Would we be breaking the bank paying for braces for our kids like we are now?
Sadly, we'll never know. Except we do have a pretty good indicator. Our youngest, who has benefited the most because our eating habits around here changed even before he was conceived, has had the easiest time learning, his behavior has always been pretty good, and he's rarely sick. (Our other son had loads of ear infections as a baby and toddler.) It's too early to tell if our diets are good enough to avoid braces for him, but we're hoping, and we're pushing the cod liver oil! Here are my posts all about feeding your baby.
As a side note that I'm adding later (which easily makes a THIRD regret to add to the list)…
I also wish I had known about the risks with vaccines, and how the ever increasing number of “required” shots just CAN'T be safe! SIDS, Autism, food allergies, severe learning and behavior issues–these things were RARE when I was young, and now they're prevalent. Yes our diets make a difference, but this must play a huge part as well.
2. How I wish I had been moved to homeschool from the get-go.
Now for this one I really can't kick myself too much, because I always was open to this option if ever there was a good reason. Our neighborhood elementary school is so good, though, I really never saw the need and just didn't feel called to it. But again, how blinded I was. While some kids do great in the school system, there was a need for our kids, I just didn't realize it 'til too late. Our oldest son is now going into his 3rd year of college. College! And thankfully he's doing really well, great grades and all. But I could just cry when I think of all we could've experienced together had he been home with his mom all these years instead of sending him off five days a week for eight hours a day, letting him struggle through with this tough teacher or that difficult subject. Not that our goal as parents should be to make everything easy for them, but I have to wonder, would his faith be stronger if he'd been around more likeminded kids/families? Would he have had more time to find new interests or hobbies? Another son is going into 8th grade, for EIGHT years I sent him off, not realizing until recently how much better this option was for our family. Same with our younger two.
But until God made it clear what we should do, I just wasn't ‘there'. All I can do is be thankful that I was led to homeschool now instead of any later down the road. As the summer winds down and we're closer to our first day of this adventure, I'm very excited about our new routines. I'm also nervous that I won't be able to pull off working full time and doing a good job of educating our kids. With all I've learned and read about homeschooling, and the HUGE benefits, I really want this to be a forever plan for us. I love knowing I have all of you to help me. If something isn't working, I'll be asking for more advice, so stay tuned! (And thank you all so much for your support!) Here are all my posts about homeschooling from the beginning.
What are your parenting regrets?
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soltallax says
My biggest parenting regret was feeling so guilty and worried about food and environmental toxins that I havnt always been there for my children emotionally. Yes food is important but it’s NOT everything and I let it be too important. The worry, the time in gardening and cooking and researching, the stress it caused me. I didnt handle it well. I took my frustrations out on my kids by snapping and shouting a lot. I took foods and personal products away suddenly, didnt replace them gradually. I became over bearing with food rules. I caused one child a lot of anxiety.I hope I will be able to let go of this guilt. I know food and safeguarding against toxins is important but it has to be handled kindly and calmly and I didnt always do that. It shouldnt overide everything else. I just don’t want any other parents to go through how I approached this issue. A meal at Mcdonald’s or some other junk food to make them happy won’t kill them. If it buys some nice family time and reminds them of happy memories it’s worth so much to thier well being so much more than a nutrient dense chemical free meal made by fraseled, exhausted and tense mother. The less healthy food I used to make before I knew better about health, my son would say “It has mama love in it” and that counts for so much!
(And I know no one here is advocating being as obsessed as I was.)
KitchenKop says
You make a good point that we should definitely keep in mind, but I think there’s sometimes a fine line with this. Our 20 year old sometimes can be a drama king and he thinks the fact that I no longer buy him ‘sugar bomb breakfast cereals’ like I did back in ‘the day’ is a form of child abuse, LOL. I still buy him “better junk” sometimes, but I do hope with a little more maturity he’ll see the wisdom in eating better and make good choices.
But anything can be taken too far and it’s too bad that one of your kids now has anxiety issues over food. We definitely need to show our kids balance in all of this.
Take care!
Kelly
Commenter via Facebook says
Everything happens for a reason. Don’t live with regrets. Live and learn and remember you’re a wonderful mom and your kids know they are loved!
Commenter via Facebook says
We are still a new family, and we have been dead set on homeschooling from the get go; but I also did not realize what I ate while pregnant does matter. It saddens me to look back, but I am thankful we know now! 🙂
Courtney Garth says
Megan, That is so funny! Never imagined I’d be spilling my guts to you. Ha ha! We do have a lot going on! It’s not always easy, but in a way, Jacob’s diagnosis with Tourettes and our Celiac Disease diagnosis has been a blessing in disguise. We are learning how to eat healthier and make better choices! I’d love to chat sometime about what you’re doing. I know you ROCK in the healthy eating department!
Courtney Garth says
I also deeply regret vaccinations. I never questioned them and just assumed that since I had them as a kid and turned out okay, that they must be okay. I also trusted the doctors who said they were essential and safe. Now, my oldest has Tourettes and ADHD, as well as Celiac Disease. My middle son and myself also have Celiac Disease. My little one -10 mos., has had only a few shots at 2 months. I’ve decided not to do anymore vaccinations. I’m not saying the vaccines caused the Tourettes and ADHD, but they couldn’t have helped the situation. We’ve also cleaned up our diets a lot. We’re trying hard to eat healthier and less processed food. We have a long way to go, but we’re heading in the right direction.
Megan says
Courtney, it’s your real life friend, Megan! I hope we run into each other soon so we can chat. I didn’t know you were dealing with all that on your plate…that is a lot. I hope things get easier for you all. I am gradually doing more “real food” things now that I’m learning more. Love to be an ally with you!
Commenter via Facebook says
@ Melissa Dixon – That’s true, we never know, do we? Sigh. Parenting can be so difficult…
Commenter via Facebook says
Yes, vaccinations, that’s another one I regret and should’ve made that my #3!!
Commenter via Facebook says
@ Lindsey Bernat Gremont – I’ll have to look into that, maybe there’s a plugin or something …
leigh says
I wanted to homeschool from my first pregnancy. How I wished DH and I had been more willing to make the sacrifices necessary to learn to live on one income from the get-go. Intead, everything just snowballs to the point where staying at home, let alone homeschooling seems like something I’ll never experience.
I still pray every day for this chance. Now that DH seems to be coming around and he’s going back to school, my job now is to reign in my spending and get our debt paid off and learn to live below our means. It seems so impossible!
KitchenKop says
You have to listen to Dave Ramsey if you don’t already – he will help you do this! 🙂
leigh says
Yep, I went through the FPU, just need to get more ‘gazelle.’
Beth says
I was fortunate that my 1st born could not eat that dreaded boxed rice cereal. Because of that and her eagerness to eat I was led to feeding her real foods via Ruth Yaron’s Super Baby Food. BUT I regret in a huge way putting her steaming hot freshly cooked organic veggies in a BPA food processor to puree them, then putting the hot food in plastic ice trays and then the ultimate regret of microwaving her food in BPA containers! I gave her a full overdose of BPA as a babe, and I’m not sure she got the full benefit of the nutrients and enzymes because of the microwave. Big regrets for that. But we do the best we can given our knowledge at the time and that’s really all any of us can do on this beautiful journey called Life! Live, Learn, Adapt, Forgive.
Commenter via Facebook says
ditto to the article. my daughter is staying home this year, in 9th grade! yay! I also regret vaccinations.
Commenter via Facebook says
My biggest regret is falling for the low fat mantra and feeding my kids skim milk.
Commenter via Facebook says
vaccinating my kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Commenter via Facebook says
I definitely have several big parenting regrets, one of which is eating soy products and drinking soy milk in an attempt to be healthy when I was pregnant with my 17 year old son. I ate and drank soy crap while nursing for my son’s first year of life, and he had a lot of digestive problems :(. Thank God when he was 1 year old, Nourishing Traditions was published and I bought it from the same whole foods co-op I’d been buying all the soy junk from! I promptly threw out the soy, and am relieved to say that my son is a strapping healthy athlete @ 6’1″ and 215 lbs :). Also, none of our subsequent children were exposed to soy!
Re: homeschooling, I can hive you a slightly different perspective: I homeschooled my children from the beginning, and while I am so grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend with them, I have guilt about not being able to always do all the fun things I wanted to do (regular science experiments, art, etc.). And our oldest son (not the one who drank soy laced breastmilk, but our 20 year old) has rebelled spectacularly and really grieved us. Soooo, I still love homeschooling (and am still homeschooling 4 of my kids), but obviously it’s not a “fix all”. It sounds like you’ve done the best you knew how to do with your kids-rest in that, have fun homeschooling the kids you still have at home, and trust God to redeem the rest! 🙂
Commenter via Facebook says
I agree on1&2. I always tried to avoid the “bad” foods I.e junk food but I didn’t realize all the great things we could include in our diets before during and after pregnancy that are amazing and delicious.
Commenter via Facebook says
What we ate early on is also my biggest regret – we didn’t know any better. But once we learned we changed – and that’s all you can do!
Commenter via Facebook says
I was trying to look at the article from my phone but I can’t because your site isn’t optimized for mobile and it takes a long time to load (if at all). I bet you get a lot of unrequited readers because of this…might be a change you could easily make? Thanks! Love your blog by the way!
Homemaker says
I know we all have regrets! I wish I would of had more of a real food diet before and during my pregnancies. I also regret ever taking birth control pills before I had children, ugh. I am thankful though that now I can steer my children in the right direction. I am also thankful that I nursed all mine for 13 months (would of done longer if had to do all over). I am also grateful that we started homeschooling early and we haven’t ever sent them to PS.
I cringe at my past parenting mistakes, but I am so grateful we had made the switch while the kids are still young and growing. Thanks for your blog!
Kristi says
I loved this post. Thank you so much, Kelly, for speaking from your heart.
My biggest regret (other than stopping nursing at 9 months, feeding him the rice cereal, jarred foods, and even the Gerber toddler microwave meals ~gag) is giving my now 7 year old vaccines. I listened to the doctor and not my gut. My son had his first seizure after his 6 month shots. Then another not long after his 12 month shots. And another after his 18 month shots. The doctor told me that of course it wasn’t caused by the vaccines. I believed her. He kept getting all recommended shots up to age 5. He even got the flu shot just like she told me. And he got the flu every year. He also almost had to get tubes in his ears due to all the ear infections. He was on antibiotics several times each year. I try not to dwell but maybe things would be so much different now if I didn’t blindly follow the doctor. He was diagnosed dyslexic and ADHD but I’ve never put him on drugs. We’re homeschooling now because of his struggles in school. He’s doing so much better on real food than ever before even though he still struggles.
Then a friend recommended your blog. My daughter was about 3 months old when I started reading your site. I never gave her any more shots after researching. She just turned 2. I nursed until she was 18 months old, her first foods were egg yolk and avocado, and I’d give her sips of broth. She has never been on an antibiotic and has only been sick once or twice and it was short lived. She’s a great talker and is already self potty training.
I’m pregnant with my third due in a few weeks. My diet hasn’t been a perfect real foodie one but it’s a 1000 times better than with either of the other ones. I can’t wait to meet this little girl growing inside me.
When we know better, we do better. I say this all the time, too. I try not to live in the past but am thankful that I have the knowledge to try to do better each day for my children and myself.
Your blog started me on this journey towards better health for my family and I. You are doing life changing things for strangers every day. We owe you more than you could ever know for the changes in my son and the wonderful health of my daughter and this very active little girl inside me. It’s all because of you and that you were called to share your knowledge with others and chose to follow in that calling.
Thank you!
Much love,
Kristi
KitchenKop says
Kristi, that is so sweet of you to share how my blog has helped you, it melts me! It’s definitely been the Lord from the get-go, no way could I have pulled any of it off w/o Him, the technical issues should’ve done me in long ago!
Kelly
Commenter via Facebook says
Same here with number 1! My diet while pregnant was atrocious. Still trying to lose all that weight. Thankfully, we have made the decision to HS from K on…should be fun! My biggest is my son’s circumcision. Hate that I allowed that 🙁
Commenter via Facebook says
Stay-at-home moms are not appreciated for choosing to stay home and nurture our children.
Commenter via Facebook says
Totally agree with the homeschooling. Wish I had gone back into workforce after they were in junior high.
Commenter via Facebook says
Totally agree with nunber one
Commenter via Facebook says
Loved this, thanks!
KitchenKop says
Thanks again for your support everyone and for sharing your stories. It means so much to know you’re here to reach out to when I need help with something, anything!
Hugs to you all!
Kel
Heather@Mommypotamus says
Kelly, I just want to say real quick that I love your homeschooling posts! My oldest is starting kindergarten at home this year and I am excited and terrified. How am I going to fit one. more. thing. in? How will I keep my two year old occupied during lessons? It’s more than a little daunting, but then I read this and realize that my little ones are going to go to COLLEGE someday too and all of a sudden it seems totally worth the extra effort to have them close by every day. Thank you!
KitchenKop says
Yes, Heather, you wouldn’t believe how fast it goes. It’s a major cliche, but wow, it couldn’t be more true.
Kel
Abranda says
Love this blog. My heart stored within. Well written, and thanks for being so real.
Megan says
I used to have the same guilt about my firstborn. We ate fairly well, but not great and I blamed myself for her colic and difficult personality. We made tons of changes after she was born though and when I got pregnant with my next child, I was doing all the right things (well most, who does things perfectly, i ask). I had it all figured out, right? Great pregnancy, great birth, and baby born not breathing due to a rare and very serious birth defect (and a genetic syndrome later diagnosed). Now within her syndrome, our little girl is very healthy and doing great and I’m not saying the things I did didn’t give her the best shot possible. What I’m saying is that, our children are individuals who have their own path in life. I struggled with guilt for a while as I wondered what I had done wrong, but now I know that sometimes God has His own plans for our children. And now I laugh at what I thought were such horrible things with my first. I think she probably has a milk allergy which is easily resolved and she’s just a strong personality. 🙂 Also, the mistakes I made with my first pushed me to do things differently and very well may have saved her sister’s life!
KitchenKop says
What a great reminder that even when we do everything right, there are many things still out of our control. The answers are the same, though, do the best we can moving forward…
And who knows how God is using all of our collective experiences, good and bad, to shape us into who He wants us and our kids to be, as someone so wisely said in another comment. 🙂
Hugs to you!
Kel
Linda says
Kelly, I have the very same regrets you do. All I can say is I didn’t know then what I know now. I also struggled to nurse and I had to give it up for store bought formula. I grieved over that. It was like a period of mourning for me. Yes, the ear infections and constant conjunctivitis. He was a slow learner, slow to speak clearly, slow to walk. I pulled him out of school after 6th grade to homeschool. Very hard at that stage. He is also in college now. If it wasn’t for foreign language he would be finished. I guess all we can do is go on from here. Good luck.
Bethany Merchant says
Can I just say thank you? I am 31 and have been married for a whopping 5 months. I started my real food journey about three years ago. While I still have much to learn and a ways to go, I am proud to say my husband and I have a pretty solid real food foundation. Kelly the Kitchen Kop has been a pretty instrumental blog in my real food introduction. Side note: Mommypotamus introduced us. 🙂 As I look to the future I have a clear picture of the kind of pregnancy I can have thanks to deeply nourishing real food. I am confident that I have the resources to answer tough questions concerning breast feeding, first foods, etc. Who said if I see into the future it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants? Something like that. Thank you for sharing your experience, regrets, and success; they help me see my future and all it’s options.
KitchenKop says
You brought tears to my eyes.
How blessed you are to be learning all that you have NOW instead of later.
Thanks for your super sweet words. 🙂
Denise @ Creative Kitchen says
Awesome post! Parenting is such hard work!! All I can say about homeschooling now that we’ve been doing it 10 years….is that God uses our children to “refine” and “shape” us into HIS image! Oh it is SO hard too many times for me to count. I have one with a personality…she and I clash big time (my 13 yr old), but I’m striving everyday to be the mom she needs me to be as well as the parent God needs me to be to her (and the others).
All I can say is…it’s HARD! But so worth it…..so thrilled you’re starting your homeschooling journey. We’ve had so many blessings through the years because of it. 😉
Susan says
Oh man, this subject can make me want to throw up if I allow myself to think about it too long! I get to feeling so flipping guilty! When I look at my 17-year-old daughter and I am so saddened by the food choices I made while pregnant with her. I can clearly remember eating Nilla wafers with a can of lemon frosting!! I wouldn’t touch either thing with a 10 foot pole now, but I sure did crave it then! Then after I had her her pediatrician pushed soy formula on me big time. I did nurse her for 8 months, but after that, the push was on!! Her doctor loved soy. It was this same doctor that told me I was causing my daughter’s ADHD because I was too hovering and nervous. She gave my daughter Ritalin and me Xanax. How effed up is that??
My daughter needed braces, and is pigeon toed to this day. I can make myself cry from guilt if I really let it get to me. We’ve been eating real food now for 5 years so I tell myself that I haven’t been too late because her brain is still developing and she has had great health since we made the switch. Just this morning I watched her gobble up a bowl of peaches with cream and a quick drizzle of maple syrup. She also remembered -on her own- to take her coconut oil and FCLO.
Whenever I feel sad for my huge mistakes during pregnancy, I think about 2 things: First off, at least I made the changes and we are doing better now. And secondly, at least we weren’t like our mothers while pregnant. I can vividly remember seeing a picture of my mother pregnant with me smoking a cigarette and holding a cocktail! I am also comforted knowing that I’ve taught my daughter enough that my grandbabies -way, way down the road!!- will come out perfect because my daughter gets it.
Amy says
Kelly, I think it might be helpful to remember that every parent makes mistakes, and humans can be pretty resilient when they want to be. I don’t have kids yet, but my parents made about a million mistakes with me. Not so much nutritionally (although I did need braces), but definitely with lots of antibiotics, etc., and more importantly, my parents didn’t know how to communicate and didn’t like or know how to deal with my personality because it was different from theirs. I grew up not feeling loved, with non-existent self-esteem, and a raging eating disorder. But, I got myself to therapy finally in my late twenties, and while I’m most definitely not perfect I’m in a much happier place today in my thirties, in a relationship, and with much-improved self-esteem and improving health. A lot can be fixed with the right tools, hopefulness and faith, and if your kids know you love them and did your best, that is HUGE.
Beth says
My youngest has galactosemia (fortunately the dominant-recessive; not the dominant-dominant) and was on SOY formula and then soy milk for 7 years! She looked like all of the malnourished children I saw on the streets with the huge bellies and scrawny arms, dark circles under her eyes and she was dragging through the day from 10 am onward. Once a friend alerted me to soy and we removed it, changing to almond milk and avoiding soy products, the change was amazing. Her belly normalized, her limbs got some muscle, her dark circles were gone, and she played like a normal kid.
I have other food regrets – some that I am doing right now that I wish could be different! – but that’s enough for one day, lol.
Colleen says
Hi Kelly! I wanted to reach out and give you a hug when I read this today. I’m sure you know this already, but you weren’t alone then and you aren’t alone now – we all have regrets. I, too, often wonder if my pregnancy diet (and subsequent inability to breast feed and doing the formula and rice cereal) had any effect on my son’s ADHD diagnosis in kindergarten (he started 6th grade this year). I hate those drugs!!!! I am happy to report that since starting a REAL food diet almost 18 months ago, we have been able to cut the amount of his dosage in half. I am hopeful that we will be able to get him off the meds completely very soon!!!
As far as Homeschooling goes, you are so awesome and so blessed! There are so many of us moms who wish we could homeschool our kids, but the necessity to work outside the home doesn’t allow us that option.
We love you, Kel! Keep doing all the great work!
nikki says
Wow. This is just what I needed to read this morning. We don’t eat horrible, but not great either and I’ve been trying to move our family into a healthier lifestyle. Homeschooling…… should we or shouldn’t we. This has been my question for the last three years (my oldest is only four). I’m thinking yes, but I’m scared. Peggy’s comment nailed it for me. I love my son, but I’m often short on patience. I don’t see the end but am often caught in the moment. He is a sensitive and caring little man caught in a wild and crazy four year old body. I need to remember, during the moment, what he will become and not that he is driving me crazy.
Thanks again for this heartfelt post. These have been the two issues that our family is dealing with at this time.
KitchenKop says
I love it when God puts just the right thing into our paths when we most need it. 🙂
Peggy says
The nutrition thing is big for me, too. Huge. But it’s not just a parenting thing. My entire life would have been different from childhood if my own nutrition was good.
My other big regret is not being able to see the end from the start…you know, having God’s eyes for my kids. I could (and still do, but much less often) get so caught up in the behavior of the moment, the trials of the day and the stages and phases that I couldn’t see how each child’s uniqueness was creating a special someone down the road.
I have a child I didn’t connect well with. His little weird moments would make me crazy and too often I was impatient or frustrated with him because of how his quirks affected me. I still don’t understand his motives sometimes, but I’m beginning to see how his sense of justice and loyalty is leading him toward a certain profession. Keeping the end in sight would have been a very valuable skill early on, and I just didn’t have that in my toolbox.
I tell my oldest all the time, “I did everything I possibly could to mess you up out of sheer ignorance. But God is faithful.”
pak says
“I did everything I possibly could to mess you up out of sheer ignorance. But God is faithful.” I think I might have to stencil this on my wall, lol. Ugh, Kelly, I know how you feel. You can only go forward and do your best. Mistakes are made for lessons to be learned, sometimes only the hard way.
KitchenKop says
This is amazingly profound…
“My other big regret is not being able to see the end from the start…you know, having God’s eyes for my kids. I could (and still do, but much less often) get so caught up in the behavior of the moment, the trials of the day and the stages and phases that I couldn’t see how each child’s uniqueness was creating a special someone down the road.”
This is something I try to remember in moments like we had a few minutes ago here. Our daughter stomped her 10 year old feet at me for asking her to pick up her mess and I’m thankful that I was able to crack up instead of get angry. I don’t always stay calm like I should, but today I was thinking of how her feisty little attitude will serve her well as an adult in this crazy world. 🙂
Maryjane says
I have the same regrets — WAY too many trips to McDonalds, not starting homeschooling sooner (my kids were 7th, 3rd, and preschool when we started). And this may sound a little strange, but I also regret making their lives a little too easy — not letting them struggle a little, not letting them go without. Although they don’t really have an “entitlement” mentality (now that they are adults, sometimes they do expect life to be too easy. But at least they’re starting to listen to Mom when she tells them that “Sugar is evil!” lol
farmgirl says
I also struggle with the guilt of my diet while pregnant. My youngest has the worst health of us all and he is only 18. I drank alot of diet coke when I was pregnant, hey the FDA said it’s safe! He is always getting sick, he has joint problems and has since he was little. I remember when he was as little as 4 years old and he would pop his knees back in place. We took him to get braces and the dental assistant who has worked there for close to 20 years said she has never seen such a narrow palet. I just thank God I found Nourishing Ways and learned about Weston A. Price. It might be to late to go back but I can change things going forward, and I have, at least my children will know how to do things better so that their children will have a better chance to be healthy.
Kim says
Homeschooling is different for every family. Starting part way through will be furry than starting from the beginning. I cannot tell you how it will be for you, but I can tell you that my children are best friends, that they love to learn, that they learn naturally, and I love being with them. My advice is to be patient with them and yourself. Find subjects that you enjoy to learn and find ways to make the less fun but necessary subjects more enjoyable. Read together and learn together. Realize that you and they do not need to know everything and focus on what they will need to be functional, responsible adults.
Kim says
Oops. furry should be harder.
Elizabeth Ours says
This really touched my heart this morning.
Thanks for sharing from Your Heart!