Getting in the Way - The Wish

I tell stories about the children I have helped raise. I use descriptions. I give them titles and labels as if these things are true and I know who they are. I can get stuck in those stories. But what is so powerful about being a storyteller is that I am given the regular opportunity to step out of the stories I tell and see them as that: stories. This then gives me the opportunity to become curious. This is the real message here: the most powerful storytelling and parenting tool I have is curiosity. When I can become curious, I leave a knowing space and enter one of wonder. When I am curious, things don’t feel so fixed. They feel incredibly dynamic and … quite honestly, a lot more fun. Parenting … becomes more fun. This episode is about the ways we parents get in the way of our children - in particular, the way we tend to describe and label them. We have a tendency to want to fix their story. I have done this with each of my kids— I have decided my kid was this way or that way, and then they show me that my labeling is not helping. “The Wish” is about how we make wishes for our children— how we want them to be happy, to not struggle, to find best friends, to find love, to be appreciated, to be encouraged and respected. We wish for these things, and sometimes, this can be a way of getting in their way.  On our website you can find some free minicourses that might be helpful for your parenting. I particularly recommend the “How to tell the perfect bedtime story” minicourse.  There are also four storytelling “pocket” camps for your kids, which are inexpensive camps that you can take with you on vacations. There is video instruction with a lovely workbook. People love them. All these things along with a story-listening course for you adults can be found at howtostory.org.