Thankful Ever After
Amidst turkey gobbling and pie indulgence, we’ll all be taking a rare moment this week to just STOP! Alongside our nearest and dearest (and perhaps in some cases, the ones who test our patience the most! ????), we will be remembering just how lucky we are this Thanksgiving.
As parents or parents-to-be, we have so much extra to be grateful for – those kicks, those smiles, those cuddles, those tiny little hands in ours, as well as those bigger hands who might pretend they don’t need us so much anymore.
It feels good doesn’t it? Taking a moment to reflect on what we have. You’re rich! I bet, you promise yourself every year that you will do it more often…but c’mon, raise your hands, how many of us stick to it?
The truth is, life is busy. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in work deadlines, feeding schedules, school runs, meal plans, unexpected diaper explosions, laundry, tantrums, playtime….we’re exhausted just typing it! Parenting feels like a lot of giving, giving, giving. And sometimes, we seem to give everything BUT thanks when we are deep down in the parenting trenches.
If like us, you’re determined to try a little harder this year, you might enjoy this article we discovered on Aha! Parenting. It’s all about establishing family gratitude traditions, for Thanksgiving and beyond.
We LOVE the idea of starting a family gratitude jar (#3) on the list. Can you imagine sitting down at the end of the year, opening up the jar and reading aloud all the good things, feelings and thoughts (big and small) that you’ve each felt this year? All those forgotten smiles and blessings REVIVED! What a tonic for even the toughest of years.
#6 Appreciation photo is a favorite of ours too. And if you have a tiny budding photographer in your household, you could get them involved. Find out what’s beautiful and magical in your little one’s eyes when you set them loose with a camera. This will open your mind to all the hidden beauties of the world that us busy grown-ups can sometimes miss.
Our take out from this article is that it’s not enough to simply promise to remember to be more grateful. We need to change our habits, and ultimately, change our mind set. In regularly incorporating grateful ‘tasks’ like the gratitude jar in to our lives, we will gently reprogram our brains and find ourselves counting our blessings more often! And if we can trickle this mindset down to our children, and get them involved, what a wonderful, healthy and happy foundation to grow upon!
There’s no better time to begin than Thanksgiving!
HAPPY THANKSGIVNG EVERYONE! We hope it’s a special one to remember.
