Hi, it's Andrew from Rite Journey Parenting Plan here and I just wanted to chat with you today a little bit about the bigger picture of the Rite Journey Parenting Plan and it sort of comes in the title the fact that I think it's really important that we actually have a plan on how we parent and so, I've been thinking about this a little bit and sort of imagining that in most journeys that we take, we actually have a picture of the destination where we're actually heading which then enables us to take the correct path to that particular destination I think with parenting though probably, we don't do that terribly well
So, what I'm suggesting is that it's really important that we do get a picture of what kind of young adult we'd like to be creating in our parenting and it did get me into thinking, if you don't actually have a destination, then it can be quite difficult to know whether you're on track to that destination and what came to mind for me was the picture of an autopilot and the fact that when an autopilot in a plane is set up, obviously they know where their destination is and the way the autopilot actually works is that when it gets off track, it corrects itself to get back on track, so it's not always flying the exact direction, the exact course to its destination There are outside influences that come along that actually push it a bit off track but what it does know is it knows how to get back onto track, so the autopilot actually kicks in and swings it back around towards its destination So, what is our destination as a parent? What are we hoping to create? And I think that is a really important conversation that we need to have, we need to think about it ourselves, if we have a co-parent, we need to talk about it with them but only then can you actually think about what the path is going to be to getting to that destination So, some things I think are important to think about and what kind of qualities you'd like your children to hold What are the virtues that would be important for them to have as adults? What words would you hope come to mind when thinking about your child when they become an adult? Certainly in my ponderings about the Rite Journey, the words that have come up and I've used for many years now, we want them to be resilient, we'd like them to be responsible, respectful, resourceful, we talk about shifting from dependence into independence and then there'll be a whole lot of other words which will come to mind that you hope are part of your young adult's life like love
And so, the parenting plan and your family culture really needs to be built around that particular destination I don't think there would be many businesses that would start without some kind of mission statement, without some kind of purpose, some kind of direction and yet often we launch into our parenting without really having that clearly in mind And so, that's really what the Rite Journey Parenting Plan is partly about is working out what the direction is that you want to be going with your children, what the destination point is and then creating some kind of path, putting some things in place, creating a family culture that will help you reach that destination and then if you get a little bit off track, hopefully there's a co-parent or someone else in your life who's able to step in, maybe it's even you yourself noticing that you're off track and just guide yourself back around so that you can keep moving as best on track as you can with that destination in mind So, I'm looking forward to sharing the Parenting Plan with you in the coming months and thanks so much for listening We'll catch you next time