Susan Heim – Susan Heim on Parenting

Probably when I found out I was expecting twins. I wasn’t even trying to get pregnant, and then to find out I was having twins … you can imagine my shock!

Annie Fox, M.Ed. – From the desk of Annie Fox

I’ve had many moments in my 30 years of parenting. One that stands out at this moment is the realization that the way I do things is not necessarily the way my children need to do them. This insight was delivered by my daughter when she was 6 years old.

Always very fun-loving and imaginative, she frequently lost herself in fantasy play and lost track of time. I recall a school morning when her task was to put on her socks and shoes and come down for breakfast before heading out the door and down the hill to school and her first grade class. I left her upstairs with one sock on and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. After 15 minutes, she hadn’t yet come down. It was getting late, so I rushed upstairs and found her sitting on the floor in the same spot, with the same one sock on. With the other sock, she had made a puppet and was creatively entertaining herself. I stared at her, totally exasperated.

“I can’t believe you’re still sitting here! You’re going to be late for school. It wouldn’t take me 15 minutes to put on my socks!”

At which point, my beautiful daughter looked up at me, slightly amused, and delivered this newsflash, “I’m not you, Mom”.

How wise! None of them are us. They have their own way of being in the world. So be it.

Maria Melo – Conversations with Moms

There are so many, but I think the one that touched me the most so far was the first time my oldest son met his brother. The love in his eyes for his brother melted my heart.

Annie – PhD in Parenting

I don’t have one in particular, but I think most of my profound parenting moments in general come from observing my children’s achievements. When I have the opportunity to observe them succeed at something, especially something that they struggled with, that brings me a lot of joy. This can include physical, academic or social achievements. I just love seeing things start to click and seeing them grow into themselves.

Ria Sharon – My Mommy Manual

We use the bell as a signal in our house to stop and take a deep breath. We use it randomly… whenever someone thinks to do it, as well as when we’re squabbling. The rules are that 1) anyone can ring the bell but that person must have peace in their heart and 2) when the bell rings, EVERYONE in the house must stop what they are doing and take 3 deep breaths.

We’d been doing this for a few months. We had just gotten in bed one night, my 5 year old boy on one side of me, my 7 year old girl on the other. My boy and I were arguing about something and my girl suddenly says very loudly, “BONG!!!!!” We all burst out laughing. And then all took 3 deep breaths.

Richard “RJ” Jaramillo – Single Dad

Sitting on the side of a mountain (8,900 ft) with two separated shoulders, a collapsed lung and a broken collar bone in front of my children and trying to remain calm through the pain of it all for 3 hours until we were rescued.

Sue Scheff – Sue Scheff Blog

Finding out our kids are not perfect! Of course, we all believe when our children are born that they are nearly perfect and we will be sure that whatever mistakes our parents made, we will not.

The most profound moment for me is when I realized I was sounding just like my parents! Déjà Vu moment. You finally understand what your parents were doing as they were telling you what you could and couldn’t do.

Ronit Baras – Family Matters

Funny, but the most profound parenting moment for me was the day after my second child was born, which was the day he died. The enormous pain I had from losing him made me realize that what I have is a treasure that needs to be cherished every day, every second, because we tend to take things for granted and kids should never be taken for granted. The fact they can see, hear, walk, smile, sing, learn and communicate is magic and the magic does not disappear when they grow up and are no longer cuddly creatures that do exactly what you want them to do (or, God forbid, have their own ideas). Before he died, I had the most wonderful girl (Eden was 5 years old), but I learned to truly appreciate this only after losing my baby.