I am an Amazon Affiliate and an affiliate of other companies and therefore may earn commission through the links listed on this site at no extra cost to you.
I fell for the rabbit holes. The homeschooling ones, the crunchy ones, the nerdy ones, the organic ones, the side hustle ones. I’ve fallen for the “keeping up the Jones”, all the Jones.
I’ve thought my family needed to be a certain way, act a certain way, eat a certain way, live a certain lifestyle. And the longer I tried the harder mothering seemed to be.
Until I realized the beauty of embracing who I am and who my kids are.
We are not athletes. None of us are captivated by sports, except Rugby, it’s just not what we want to spend our time doing. We are not 100% organic people nor 100% “crunchy”. We’re eclectic in our interests but you’d probably consider us nerds.
We like classical music and old movies, rugby and anime. We prefer video games, card games and board games. We love books! One child loves to craft, engineer and math. Another loves acting and making stories. Another loves to sing and be outside. I love hand sewing and baking and my husband loves science and engineering and piano playing. Oh, and we all love Jesus!
I let go of who I thought our family needed to be and let God show me who we really are. I’m learning to watch my children’s interests and talents and help cultivate a home where they can flourish in their God given gifts. I want us to find joy in the things that bring us joy not what everyone else says will.
Maybe you feel the same. Maybe you’ve been trying to find your thing but nothing seems to work. Stop chasing other people’s lives and learn to live your own.
Don’t know where to start? Just watch, listen. What do you and your kids gravitate towards, what do you talk about, what makes you smile even a little.
Now a caution, yes there are bad habits and things that don’t align with your family’s values. It’s okay to change and do different things. I’m not saying don’t change, I’m saying stop trying to be like so and so family.
Be your family.
So I’d love to know, what makes your family?