Parenting Together

The longer I've been married and the longer I've been a mother, I've come to realize what a blessing and joy it is to parent together. By this I mean, both parents agreeing on how to parent and act as a team in leading, teaching, correcting and disciplining their children.

Marriage is hard work and then to add children to the mix can cause even more chaos and confusion. Working together and enjoying the ride as it travels is much more enjoyable, stress less and productive.

Not to say that parenting together isn't stressful. Teaching young minds is tiresome, endless work.

Can you imagine how wonderful a marriage would be like to live in, in the following example (which doesn't have to be exactly as I've described, but along the same lines)?

Mother stays home with her children instead of having a paying job. She spends her days caring for the home and teaching, correcting, training and disciplining her children in her ways. Father comes home from work and proceeds to spend time with his children and teach them his ways, which may be the exact opposite of what Mother had been doing all day long. 

What will happen in the home? It will become a house of chaos and disarray. The children know that each parent will teach them in opposite ways and they will be confused, frustrated, angry; not to mention the fact that they will also try to pit the parents against each other.

The next day she starts all over again, and he undoes everything. This continues everyday.

What will her reaction soon be, if it hasn't already started the first day? What will her relationship with her husband be like? 

Won't this make for a wonderful marriage? A wonderful life? 

(Here my tone is a bit sarcastic, if you hadn't already pick up on that. :))

Can you see why it would be so beneficial to not only your children to be parented the same from both parents (in a Biblical manner I might add), but also the husband and wife and the benefits to their marriage?

I'm so thankful that my husband and I see things similarly. The issues that we might not agree or are unsure of, we spend time communicating with each other so that we can come up with a plan and act it out together. As a team.

I'm no psychologist, psychiatrist or the like and what I say might not be completely accurate. I've just come to realize how important it is to be one as a husband and wife. Not just in those moments when my husband and I have conceived your children, but in every day matters of life. 

Marriage, as God intended and created it, is attacked from so many directions. Don't let this be one that's allowed to fall unnoticed and vulnerable.