When I was pregnant with Oldest, I was practically bed-ridden with hyperemesis gravidarum, and therefore spent a lot of time pondering the fact and future of child rearing. Having grown up in a very conservative family, we were around many families who seemed to have the idea that you are raising children, and they need to be taught to rely on their parents for all opinions, decisions, values, and beliefs. My parents really didn’t struggle with this, they may have had things I disagreed with as an older child, but those were usually things that were a “house rules” type of issue, not a This is Law and the Bible Says So issues.  My parents constantly encouraged me to go to Scripture and to weigh things according to the Word, not my emotional reasoning.
As I looked forward to raising my child, I discussed with J the fact that I really didn’t want to raise children, I wanted to raise adults. read more…