The Need

After my youngest child turned 4, there was a lull in the intensity of parenting. It lasted about three years. I don't know....maybe I'm talking out of my butt here... because as I thought back, it really didn't ever seem like a break. Maybe what felt like a lull was just a changing of their needs?

Anyway, I was recently thinking about how much my children still need our parenting skills. In particular, I pay attention to their growing bodies and their alignment. I pay attention to their nervous system and their digestion. I can see where their foundation is lacking, such as weak feet, and I know what it will feel like when they are older if we don't take care of it now. Caleb thinks about their enjoyment of working out in gyms and makes sure that we always have an adventure on the calendar. He knows what will happen if those aren't important aspects in their lives.

Maybe it feels like their need is less intense because what we are teaching them now includes a lot of fun on our end and it requires a lot of self-determination on their end. It seems like it's more mental and financial needs that our children have for us since they are at the age where they are naturally shifting away from needing our physical presence.

We're now paying attention to several small things that, if left unaddressed or undeveloped, will become big issues later in their lives. It hit me recently that my children still need me a lot and probably will for all of their lives. I think Caleb and I are at the tail end of the type of parents who think that we are done raising our children as soon as they become 18 years old, because we are noticing that several parents of our age are thinking about still being family units throughout our children's lives.