Re-parenting my inner child one bedtime story at a time.

I hope yall don't mind a post like this, I just felt like this was the most appropriate sub for what's been on my mind.

Someone once told me that one of the beautiful things about parenthood is that it's also a chance to re-parent yourself and I've taken that to heart as I did not have a good upbringing.

One thing that really stuck out to me was all the pictures in the books I never understood because I couldn't read as a small child of course and never once were they ever read to me. I never got a single bed time or any time story. I remember coloring the black and white pages of The Giving Tree or staring at the strange and fascinating artwork in Ferdinand the Bull, but I never ever knew what on earth they were about. And I always really wanted to know what they were about. I just had to guess or make up my own ideas instead.

This inner child of mine is really getting taken care of along with my own son now though. I get so excited getting new books, just as much as him if not more so. And Ferdinand is his favorite book right now, we read it every night. There's so many pictures that have been seared into my memory from childhood that I'm just now, at 37, getting the context for. I'm betting once a week I'm moved to near tears because things make sense now. He gets to grow up on the actual stories and my inner child is healing.

I know this post is a bit different, but I hope maybe the idea of re-parenting your inner child makes things a bit easier in terms of taking more time to do the things you wish had been done for you when you were small or just not taking things for granted in the moment.