Do Couples Need Preparation For Parenting?

Just as I thought about writing about pregnancy and parenting, my mind went to the fact that parenting should be planned after good forethought.  Your life changes with parenting, with caring and nurturing the child becomes one of the most important responsibilities. So it is best to plan on parenting after a deep thought into various important issues.

Some of the important issues that require deep thought:

• It is first very important for a couple to honestly review their relationship and know if it is secure. Parenting in the first few years can be really stressful with lack of quality sleep, financial demands and less of quality time with one another. You and your partner have to decide if you are really committed to each other, communicate well with each other and work as a team rendering the responsibilities of parenting.

• Next it is most important to ensure that you as a couple should never adopt a baby or plan a pregnancy just because you need love; the love of a child can only be considered the bye-product and not the main reason for having a baby. Parents need to emotionally fill them up.

• A child should never be born or adopted just to solve a problem like wanting to hold on to a boy friend, ensuring an inheritance, or trying as a couple to come closer. It would only aggravate the problem with an additional person to care for. It would be right to say that those couples that want to spread love, view parenting as a commitment and the family as a valuable part of living fully should plan for parenting.   

• Couples, especially mothers should plan a baby only when she is able to put the needs of the baby before her own; if her baby is sick she should be able to say “NO” to a party and stay at home to care for the baby. It is very important to prepare yourself mentally to place your baby’s needs for comfort and attention over your own.

• Lastly putting the child before us that forms the important ingredient of effective parenting also means being able to set aside material things; if we are not well off we may have to put the baby’s need for nutritious food, medical expense or necessity before our own. Yes, babies cost a lot of money both as an infant and when they grow. So you and /your partner need good earnings before you plan on parenting.  

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