We’d love to hear your parenting stories . Share yours with us and we will donate $50 to the Starlight Children’s Foundation for every one published.
Please use the form below to share your experience. For every one we publish we will donate $50 to the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Your contact details are never passed on and you can stay anonymous if you wish.
It’s Easier Than You ThinkI wanted to write and share an experience I had recently that really got me thinking about priorities. I stayed home from work to take my son to the zoo. It wasn’t planned, I’d had been working long hours and got home in the evening, having missed my son’s bedtime for the umpteenth time that month. It was a spur of the moment thing. I know how much he loves the zoo so I figured we should just go. I called the school the next day and told them he wasn’t going to be in. They didn’t seem to care in the slightest, which made me feel a lot better. Then I spoke to my boss at work and told him I was taking my son to the zoo so I’d need to submit a holiday request. My boss told me not to worry about it, and just go and enjoy myself! So there I was. Something that I would usually plan at least a week or two in advance and with a couple of quick phone calls we had the day to ourselves to do exactly what we wanted. It was a great feeling. We got to the zoo and I was starting to think “this is too good to be true” when it started to drizzle. Of course, I hadn’t brought any rain gear! I could see the day starting to unravel before me eyes. But no. We just headed to the nearest building, which turned out to be the Nocturnal House. I was sure that my lack of preparation was going to bite me and that my son would get bored fairly quickly, but I was wrong! He loved it! The rain didn’t matter a bit. We stayed in-doors for most of our trip and at each window I would lift him up and he would lean his face against mine, looking through the windows and make suitably excited sounds. There weren’t many people there (because it was a school day AND it was raining) so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. We saw loads of things and he as we moved from cage to cage he would look up at me and say “Dad, pick me up again!” He had a way of saying “Dad” that makes my heart melt. What a perfect day and so easy. I know I get too bogged down in detail and preparation, when actually the best moment I’ve had with my son have been spontaneous and simple. A lesson for us all? Kevin, a Practicing Parent and happy reader of your site |
Never Give UpHi there. I am the proud mum of an IVF child. A child I was told I would never have and given odds of 1 in hundreds of thousands of ever conceiving. But, after many long years of infertility treatments, pills, needles and several rounds of IVF… I’m here to say that I beat the odds and I’m so happy to be a parent. My journey began in the late 1990s. My husband and I decided to try for a child and I came off the pill. After a year of “trying” we thought we should see the doctor, who took some precautionary tests. To cut a long story short, there was a problem both with my husband’s sperm count and I too was referred to as a “poor responder” because my yield in egg production was very small. We spent another year going through one form of test to the next. Hormone levels, womb lining, fallopian tubes and an operation on my husband finally resulted in a top gynecologist telling us that IVF and Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) may never be successful and that we should consider fostering or adopting. It took all our combined mental, emotional and physical powers to keep going. It is hard to explain just how exhausting and overwhelming the whole process can be, but I’m here to say that you shouldn’t give up. It was the toughest time of mine and my husband’s life together, but the joy of raising our child has been a godsend. I now work with couples going through IVF using my experience to coach and support them along their journey because I believe that being a parent is the greatest gift and a joy that everyone should be encouraged to experience. Sarah |
Thanks for sharing, Kevin. Sometimes we can overplan instead of enjoying the moment, huh? I’m guilty of that myself. How often have you heard the saying “live each day like it was your last”? Think how different our daily activities would be!!!
Hi Sarah,
What an amazing story and incredibly inspirational too. Thank you for sharing your experience and hopefully acting as source of encouragement for all those who may have (or may still) find themselves in a similar position to you. You are an example of perseverance paying off. And as you say; parenthood is a wonderful gift. We at Practicing Parents wish a joyful parenting experience for everyone!