parenting goal

I guess if I had to sum it up, the parenting goal in our family would be two fold. First and foremost our desire is to raise them as Bible thumpin, Holy rollin, God fearing Jesus freaks! Our true desire is for our children to share the light of Jesus Christ with those around them. We strive to give them grace and in turn our hope is that they will give the same grace to those arond them.

Secondly, we want them to have the opportunity to get involved in sports, music, dance, drama, church, boy scouts, or whatever activities they want to try without them ever feeling as if they cannot participate in a certain activity because they come from a big family. We always budget our time and money in a way that allows them to each be involved in 2 activities at any given time. We never want our children to grow up to say "I didn't get to do abcde because my parents had too many kids". So, if there is something they want to do (especially if it involves physical activity) and it doesn't put a huge strain on our time or budget, them we work hard to make it happen. Often this means my husband and I both coach a team at the same time so that we can schedule practices around our families schedule. We also make sure the family eats dinner together at least 5 nights a week, even if it means eating sandwhiches and chips at the soccer field 30 minutes before practice starts.