Intentional Parenting will mean different things to different people. For the purposes of this blog, being an intentional parent means intentionally implementing strategies to get the outcomes you want for your child. 

This blog isn’t designed to tell you what good parenting is. It is designed to prompt you to consider the things that are important to you and then inspire you to take action with some guidance. 

Intentional parenting requires thinking about what’s important to you. For example, do you value creativity, curiosity, kindness or grit? How do you feel about family, faith or culture? What does success look like for you? What do you consider a good use of your time? How open to new ideas or experiences are you?

If you take a moment to consider your responses to these questions you’ll gain clarity on the things that are important to you.

Intentional parenting also requires you to think about outcomes. For example, do you want your child to be into music? Do you want them to want to play an instrument? Note the phrasing of this question is key for intentional parenting. There is a difference in the strategy for wanting your child to play an instrument and wanting your child to want to play an instrument. 

Finally, it is important to keep in mind that all parents are at different places in their thinking about parenting. There are some parents heavily invested in getting specific outcomes and others who may look at the journey of parenting very differently. 

Ultimately, you will need to define what good parenting looks like for yourself.