Dakarai and I bike to gymnastics each week, and after the class we often play around the gym. Last week, I noticed a man flipping around at such wickedly fast speeds and with such fluid agility that I had to pick my jaw up from the floor. The man took a break and I took the chance to introduce myself. We quickly made friends and found that we had enough similar interests to forge a friendship. (He was even kind enough to help me with my first back handspring, and will be helping me and my son develop of acrobatic skills. I will be helping him create demo reels and YouTube videos. We both have children of similar age and enjoy a plant based diet. All of this couldn’t have happened unless I was willing to reach out and make a connection.)
Just like that I expanded my parental peer group and have a new friend that I can enjoy healthy activities with.
Each year, in my current line of work of helping others to regain and maintain their health and fitness, I am asked to travel to various festivals and educational events. Sometimes the whole family makes the trip, but often my partner, Meagan stays home with the children. I don’t much like the idea leaving a mom alone with two children. Even if it is for just one or two weeks, it’s a tenuous situation that leaves one adult having to manage the household and two children. Thankfully, we’ve taken the time to develop a parental peer group and Meagan has fantastic friends who she enjoys spending time with and whom we and the children trust to respect our values.
A parental peer group is so critical to our health and energy levels that I classify it as necessary.
A parental peer group lends support in times of exhaustion, illness, or injury. A parental peer group offers opportunities to find activities and ideas that gel with your values and goals. A parental peer group allows for our children to be surrounded by adults that we want them to model. A parental peer group makes for more parenting fun!
On top of all of that, who we spend our time with greatly affects our thought process, our behaviors, our values, and our standards. Charlie “Tremendous’ Jones introduced this concept to me, “We will become the aggregate of the 5 people we spend the most time with.”
What’s cool about this is that even if you don’t have people around you that you want to become more like, we can spend time with people’s writings, speeches, and videos. We can connect with other people online or offline. We can even connect with people who have passed on from this Earth and left their work behind. By consciously creating a parental peer group, we can positively affect our level of health and energy.
Who are the 5 people you spend the most time with?
Is your current peer group supporting the type of person you want to become?
What do you value or what are you interested in?
Where could you find other parents who are also interested in these things or value the same things?
