The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting

Wow. I am totally in love with this lecture, The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting by Brené Brown that I've been listening to. I was lucky enough to win a book from her blog (it was so good, by the way) and when she mailed it, she threw in a copy of her recorded lecture. I had no idea what a gift she was giving to me.

{{{{Deep breath}}}}

I am so excited about it, I keep sharing bits with my husband, my friends, my colleagues, basically anyone who will listen to me. And I'm not even done with it yet.

So far, this is the basic idea that permeates all that I've heard:

“What if our children are imperfect when they get here and it’s our job to teach them loving-kindness?”

A while ago, I wrote this in an interview for Bella...

I want to be patient and quiet and unruffled. My children teach me daily that I'm not any of those things quite yet. I want to be loving and joyful and strong. My children teach me daily that these are what I have to be.

What I love about the connection between these two ideas is that not only are my kids imperfect (and that imperfect is OKAY), but I'm imperfect too...and that's part of life.

I feel like I have so much more to process and consider and think about thanks to Brené. My mind is racing, I have so many ideas and thoughts on how to integrate and accept and use her beautiful words.

A few more thoughts: First of all, Brené is running a track-by-track commentary on her blog for the whole CD. It's great. And since she writes like she talks, I can now hear her voice. Which cracks me up. Secondly, run, do not walk, to buy this CD. Trust me on this one.

This is definitely working for me right now. Go see what's working for other people.