Trying to be an "intentional" parent

Especially during the school break schedule for many children, as a parent, I sometimes feel the weight and importance of the time spent with my child. I try to advocate being an "intentional parent" as much as possible.

What exactly is an intentional parent? For me, an intentional parent is one who is willing to do the very hard work of helping a child be the best the child can be. The intentional parent does a lot of giving: giving of time, giving of sleep, giving of money, giving of attention—generally, giving mightily of oneself. It is certainly not easy, and as far as I know, is not meant to be.

Every parent—intentional or not—gives their child many things. Some of those “gifts” are things children might not necessarily want to receive (and/or parents don't necessarily want to bestow on children); our bad habits sometimes have a way of living on whether we want them to or not. Nonetheless, most gifts we choose to bestow on our kids.

Parental “gifts” say a lot about parents. Some just want to get through the child-rearing years with as little effort as possible...to survive, they will give the child whatever is demanded, so the kid will be quiet and stop bugging them, so that the parent can carry on with whatever the parent is focused on. Some choose to give their child the “in thing” or what's most popular, without necessarily considering whether that thing will be the most helpful. Some move through their children's worlds deliberately and purposefully; these parents give what is useful, after carefully thinking through what would be best.

That is an intentional parent. Easy? Certainly not. Going unrecognized? Probably. Helping to create a better world for their child and the world beyond them? For sure. That's an intentional parent.

Perfect day

We loved that pool session this afternoon! It was the best thing since sliced bread! Then we had a Cupstacking tournament, played Racecar and Gotchya. It was definitely another fun evening! In the words of Lou Reed, "It's such a perfect day".

Olympics and pool party!

We had a yummy breakfast to start a crazy fun day. We begin the activities with camp Olympics. This involves mud volleyball, campers sinking counselors in canoes and wacky field relays. The afternoon promises a fun pool party. We are looking forward to more fun water activities to keep us refreshed and cool!

Good times!

What an awesome end to the day! We had a cooling, refreshing swim in the late afternoon, before a tasty dinner, then moved on to a cup stacking tournament, race car game and gaga tourney. We then had our touching ceremony recognizing our returning campers. To finish off we had a beautiful campfire as the sun set in the sky. We love Kupugani!

Awesome fun!

What a beautiful day! The birds are singing and the sun is out. We're all drinking lots of water!! We had an excellent breakfast of sausages, pancakes and grapes. In the morning before it got too hot, we had some awesome camptivities like rock climbing, dam jumping, improv, tye dye, archery and hiking. Our modified schedule is allowing us a nice long time in the swimming pool this afternoon. Really looking forward to it!!

Wicked!

A late afternoon nice all camp swim. It was so nice and cool! After camp chores, we grabbed a lovely meal of spaghetti Bolognaise, garlic bread and salad...Natasha and Fer really know how to cook a wicked meal! To wrap up, we had the untalent show and dance...a great end to another great day!

Hot hot hot!!

Another fantastic sunny day! Another good hot one to enjoy the pool and water activities like dam jumping. We cleverly switched camptivities to the morning so the girls good do some rock climbing, pearler beads, canoeing and practice for the untalent show tonight. Looking forward to the show tonight!!