Outcome Based Parenting
With our lives being in transition at the moment, our kids schooling is also not certain. The options are no longer decided and so we found ourselves thinking again about how exactly we want our kids to turn out so we can assess again the various methods and routes of getting there. What are we preparing our kids for? To meet certain tertiary education entrance requirements? For adulthood? For marriage and parenting? For heaven? The truth is, we want them to be ready for all of that, and probably a bit more. It is helpful in parenting to lay that all in front of us and decide on some major goals that we have for our parenting, even giving them a priority if possible. Then we can break down our goals into more managable timeframes, knowing what we want to achieve at certain age milestones so that we can work towards those end goals. The thing is, educating our children is our responsibility, not that of the education department, just as keeping our kids healthy is our job, not the doctor's. But when we work out what we want to achieve, then we can see which of those tasks can be outsourced under our management, and which we need to tackle hands on. Whether you choose to use teachers and schools, homeschool curriculum, or tutors, it is up to you to have in mind what you are going to achieve and how you are going to get there. When a job is as important as this one, it is essential to have a plan (even a flexible one) and to have a means of outworking that plan. We need to be assessing at least annually to make sure we are still headed in the right direction and that the adults we are trying to produce are on the right track to getting there. Our method is not sacred, but our task is. Let's take seriously the job of producing men and women of great worth to lead the future generations.
