The Joy of Parenting
By: Sylvia White
Joy is one of the emotions that the holidays always bring. Many people
find joy in various things and forms. As a parent, I can imagine that
one of your greatest fountains of joy come from your children. Al-
though they may have brought you some level of disappointment in
the past, the smallest glimpse of joy can outshine those disappoint-
ments every time.
When life is sending you trouble look at the innocence in your chil-
dren’s eyes and remember the joy of the miracle of birth that brought
them into the world. You kept all of their cards and gifts from when
they first started preschool. As a matter of fact, you keep finding boxes
to put them in because you remember the joy of them giving you the
gifts. You still see the smile on their face as they waited in anticipation
of you opening their gifts.
As I write this article, I can recall the time when my children decided
they were forming a band and sing Christmas Carols to me as their
Christmas gift. The memory still has the power to bring me joy after all
of these years. It is important to cherish each moment we spend with
our children no matter
what their age.
Parenting never stops,
which means the results
are filled with continu-
ous moments of joy. The
decision to have children
brings more joy over a
lifetime than the decision
not to have them for
some. Research conduct-
ed by Dr. Sonja Lyubom-
irsky at the University
of California, Riverside,
stated, “Parents are actu-
ally happier overall than
non-parents.”
41