It would be an understatement to assert that parenting is important to me. It is the responsibility I take the most seriously out of all the things I carry, and it is the thing that defines me more than anything else. I love my kids and would run through a brick wall for them.
However. An important yet often neglected part of good parenting, and of good living in general, is that many things make up a life worth living. Obviously there are people who are not yet parents, cannot be parents, or choose not to be parents, and they all can and do live fulfilling and worthy lives, and I hope that in cherishing parenthood I do not in any way dismiss the value of lives full of things other than kids.
Even and especially for parents, it's healthy to have pursuits outside of parenthood. It's good for kids to know they come first. But it's good for kids to know that our lives consist of important and pleasurable things besides taking care of them. Said another way, it's not good for kids to think they are the only important and pleasurable thing in our lives.
And of course it's good for us that we have lives outside of being parents. Whether rich or poor, young or old, prioritizing parenting at the exclusion of one's own health, career, friendships, and leisure is not good yet so common nowadays. Whatever is keeping us in such patterns, it is paramount, for ourselves and for our influence as parents, that we break out of them and strive for a more well-rounded life. Easier said than done but so worth it.
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