Raising children is a challenge in and of itself. Each day presents new opportunities to point our children toward Jesus. Discipline, siblings, naps and many more things throughout the day have different challenges. When we were on home assignment 2 years ago, we were presented with a different kind of challenge: parenting Asher in someone else’s home.
It feels like everyone is watching our every move, no matter where we go. It’s difficult to be consistent. I’m a people pleaser, and not everyone agrees with our parenting philosophy.
Our upcoming home assignment has me thinking about how we raise our children in someone else’s home (while on home assignment). Here are two things I learned from our trip two years ago that I hope will be encouraging other people-pleasing itinerating mothers.
Confidence
While on home assignment with children, I learned I must be confident in my parenting. It’s not easy. I want to please others, but I must put my foot down when it comes to my children’s needs. When they’re tired or unwell, it means standing firm on the decision to miss out on visiting some friends. It means making sacrifices when that afternoon nap is still a priority.
Flexibility
We also need to be flexible. We teach our children to be flexible when we do this. Sometimes we’ll have to let the children nap in the car. Sometimes we have to share a bedroom with the children. Sometimes we have to take a break so our tired children can catch up on sleep.
Where God Meets Us
I realise a lot of the struggles I have with raising children while on home assignment come from within my heart. My heart tells me we need to have everything together, that we’re expected to be perfect parents, that our lives are on display for almost 3 months. But God is the one who watches, He’s the one who gives infinite parenting wisdom, and He sees my struggles. He is there, guiding us through the unpredictability of parenthood on home assignment. He gives us grace when we mess up, and he picks up the pieces when we’re overwhelmed.
We’re looking forward to what God is going to do when we travel across the Atlantic this year!
Confidence and flexibility! We moved twice last year, living with family and will move again this year back to our own home. Transitions can be tough. Recently, I’ve been looking for ways to help my littles with the transitions. I saw an idea from another mom to create a book about where we’ve been, where we’re going, with questions and emotions about it all. It was a pretty basic book, but I think its been good tool to help them process.