I have the honor to work with the planning committee for the Touchpoints Center annual forum, coming up in May, 2012. We had our first conference call yesterday and as we talked about speakers and activities to support our theme the idea of vulnerability came up. We as parents, as humans, want so much to appear to ourselves and others like we know what we’re doing – yet parenting, like most of life, is a trial and error process.
Can we show our unsureness and our vulnerability to our friends, the new moms we are meeting in this new life, and to the world? And will society support us?
At our focus group the other night I was struck by how willing some are to share their worries, and how others keep these things closer. Yet because we are ALL human, and because none of us is born knowing how to parent, those fears and concerns are a natural piece of the parenting puzzle. How do we support each other in this journey, how do we find confidence in ourselves that our own learning is normal and nurturing?