Hello!
Seeing this picture of Sunny with the world has inspired me to write about why I think our parenting is so valuable.
(And before I write more, I want to invite you to refrain from hitting yourself with emotional sticks. All the things that I talk about here are generalities. We don’t need to be ‘perfect’ (whatever that is) to help our children grow up as compassionate earth citizens. In fact, being ‘imperfect’ and being compassionate with ourselves, authentic with our children, and repairing wherever necessary, is also a really helpful gift for our children!)
So, here’s why I think our parenting is so valuable:
1. Responding promptly to their physical needs and treating their bodies with love and respect means that they learn to respond promptly to their physical needs and treat their body with love and respect, and that loving respect then gets generalised so that they also treat other people’s bodies and the physical world with love and respect too.
2. Being securely attached and deeply connected with us helps them feel connected with mother earth. Their love for our mother-bodies helps them feel a deep love for the body of mother earth.
3. Listening to their painful feelings (as much as we are able) means that they have less pent up feelings, and need to do less things to repress those feelings. One of those ways that adults repress feelings is to buy things. The fewer adults there are on the earth who are buying things simply to repress feelings is a helpful thing for our planet.
4. The less accumulated feelings they are holding in their bodies, the more present and aware they are. Teens and adults who are more present and aware are able to be present with other people and with the planet. They are more able to see the beauty of the natural world – to take great joy in a sunset, or to see the beauty in a butterfly, and are thus more likely to want to do things that care for the earth.
5. The more we respond to our babies and children with compassion, even when they are crying or tantrumming or not sleeping or hitting their sister, the more they will internalise compassion. That means more compassion for themselves, more compassion that they can give others, and the more they can be compassionate with other creatures and the earth. That’s also going to make a difference to the world.
6. The more a child’s ideas and unique talents are honoured and respected and cherished and nurtured, the more she is able to stay connected with those unique gifts. And the more she’s connected with her own beautiful uniqueness, the easier it will be for her to contribute her uniqueness to others and to the world. And that’s a great gift for all.
7. When children have a lot of pent-up feelings, it’s hard for them to think clearly. The more we are able to meet their needs and listen to their feelings, the more clearly they are able to think. And the more we listen respectfully to their ideas, the more they value their own ideas. And the world really needs people who can think clearly and creatively, to help solve some of the challenges we are facing as a global community.
8. Hurt people hurt people. The more we can meet our children’s needs and listen to their feelings, the less hurt they carry, and the more compassionate and empathic they can be to others.
9. When children are holding in painful feelings, they will avoid deep connection and intimacy, because loving connection with us helps them connect with their painful feelings. The more we can listen to their painful feelings, the more comfortable they are with intimacy. Having humans who can be intimate with others really helps our culture and the world!
10. Each generation is designed to evolve beyond the next. The more we are able to see our children clearly, mirror them accurately, respond to them compassionately, meet their needs, value their unique gifts, and help them express painful feelings, the bigger the evolutionary step they are able to make. The more we do our own healing, the more free they are to share their gifts in the world. The more aware, present, compassionate, loving, inclusive, clear, creative human beings there are in the world, the fewer wars, the fewer humanitarian crises, and the more care for our planet.
Our wider culture doesn’t value parenting.
But I believe that parenting is one of the most valuable things you can do.
Helping nourish children who grow up to be more connected, compassionate, caring, creative, calm, centred and clear will profoundly affect not only their lives and emotional wellbeing, but also affects their friends, their future partners and children, their future life direction, and our beautiful planet.
What you do is deeply important.
What you do is profoundly making a difference.
What you do is deeply valuable.
Thank you for helping co-create a more evolved and compassionate world, through how you respond to your child/ren.

My Aware Parenting Instructor Mentoring Course starts on the first of March.
When my daughter was 6 months old, nearly 15 years ago, I sat outside a mother’s group, holding her, and crying.
I was longing to meet other mothers who were into Aware Parenting.
15 years on, and my life has changed beyond imagination.
I have many many friends, all around the world, who practice Aware Parenting.
Every day I get to contribute to other families.
Every day I receive emails, texts and messages from parents thanking me for making a difference to their lives.
Every day I’m grateful to Aletha Solter for creating Aware Parenting and for writing her books.
And now, there’s this building and growing community of Aware Parenting Instructors.
Yesterday I posted on FB to ask what YouTube videos people wanted me to make.
Some of the topics were things that I have little or no experience in.
I was so joyful that now I can refer those parents to my colleagues and friends who have a huge amount of wisdom, knowledge and experience in those areas.
And that means I get to focus even more on my passions – supporting those who want to become instructors, running my online courses, working with parents of babies who want to do Aware Parenting from the start, and helping parents become deeply self-compassionate.
The more instructors there are, the more information about Aware Parenting goes out into the world.
The more instructors there are, the more support there is for parents.
The more instructors there are, the closer we are to that 100th monkey phenomenon.
It’s my vision that Aware Parenting, Parenting by Connection and similar approaches become the mainstream forms of parenting in the world.
If you’ve been thinking of becoming an instructor and you want support to dive in deep to that journey, you might like to CLICK HERE or on the image below to find out more.

Love,
Marion
xxx