If there is one concept that has driven my parenting and homeschooling, it is trusting my instincts even when no one understands. Fully embracing this idea early on changed the course of my parenting and made me a much more effective parent to my daughter.
As a Christian, I believe that sometimes it is hard to tell where our gut instinct ends and the leading of the Holy Spirit begins. (How the Holy Spirit works is a discussion beyond the scope of this post!) But in either case, learning to listen and trust your intuition is vitally important.
Trusting Your Instincts With A Differently Wired Child
The more your child falls outside of the “norm,” the more important it is to make your own decisions. If you are trying to parent a child who is an outlier in any way, trying to act on traditional parenting and homeschooling advice will erode your confidence and threaten to slowly drive you mad.
Believe me. I know this firsthand.
Trusting Your Instincts
So what is my advice?
- Take in the relevant information you can find in books or online.
- Listen to what people say.
- Listen carefully to people you trust.
- Ask the Lord for guidance.
But I can guarantee you will find yourself in situations where no one understands and you need to trust your mother gut. Acknowledge the truth of what you are hearing, but at the same time if you simply know that it isn’t the right choice for your child then have the courage to trust your instincts – even if no one else understands.
I’ve written literally dozens and dozens of posts related to this topic and been fairly open about my own parenting and homeschool journey. Depending on where you are in your journey and what kind of child you have, there is probably something here to encourage and help you.
You can consider looking at these categories:
- a gifted child
- a twice-exceptional (2e) child
- highly sensitive children
- right brain children
- high need babies
- having an only child
If you want to know if I’ve written about some specific topic and can’t find it, feel free to ask in a comment and I’d be glad to point you to something that might be relevant.
