As a mom, a wife, and a teacher, I am constantly making decisions that primarily concern the people in my life, not just me. Currently, I’m back in school working on a second Master’s degree in Teacher Leadership. The course I’m taking now is called Decision Making, and it has caused me to take an even closer look at all these decisions.
Regardless of profession, a large part of being a responsible professional is making decisions ethically. This goes without saying, of course, but in parenthood, this need to make decisions, sometimes on the fly, gets a lot more personal.
My children are getting older; they are no longer babies, and the youngest is exiting from the toddler years. As I’m learning to navigate the complexities of having older children, I’m also learning how much more challenging the decisions can be.
I want to keep them safe, but I also want to let them fly.
Some decisions are emotional. Last month, I had to make the tough decision to miss out on my son’s final daycare Halloween parade because it was an important day at work. We have decided to let our eight-year-old try out for a travel team; that’s a significant commitment, potentially.
Over the last year and a half, we have had to make the sometimes-uncomfortable decisions on how much we want our kids to reenter the world socially. Play dates and birthday parties have made a comeback.
On a much more serious note, my husband and I have had to make important decisions on how to navigate our oldest son’s recent medical diagnosis and whether or not our youngest son, with a late fall birthday, will enter Kindergarten as a four-year-old.
Every day, as parents, we are faced with new choices to make. Since I have been forced to closely analyze my decisions through the course I’m taking, I realize that every decision I make affects my children.
