Day 78: Parenting as Practice

Let’s be honest. Our babies are our little human guinea pigs on whom we perform trial and error experiments.

Hmm... what happens when I hold her up when I feed her? Hold her at an angle? Football hold? Two pillows under the elbow? One pillow?

What if I put her in the rock n’ play to nap? The pack n’ play? Her bassinet? Her crib?

Maybe she needs the yoga ball right now? This silly song? A warmer shirt? A walk around in the carrier? A nap?

We often think of practicing skills in discrete chunks of time. I practice yoga on my mat, practice meditation on my cushion (these days, in my bed or on my couch, more likely), practice singing in the shower. But we can also think of our parenting, and our life, as practice. Framing it this way helps take the pressure off getting it exactly right the first time. We try one way, and try a second way. We experiment. We fail. It’s all part of the practice.