This week we are talking about parents. 

Being a parent is the most important job in the world. It is also one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences. It is also a role (and indeed responsibility) that you can do very little to prepare yourself for mentally, physically or emotionally.

For those that don’t know me, I’m Michael Robinson and I am the Director of Parliamentary Communications and Campaigns at SPUC. My role at SPUC is one I am immensely proud of, working at an organisation at the front and centre in building a pro-life culture, through opposing abortion.  But the greatest job title I’ve ever held is "father". At present, my wife and I have two sons, Levi (3 years) and Samuel (7 months).  The old saying: "…the more you put in the more you get out" certainly is true when it comes to parenting. Ultimately, what my children give me, is what I give them. The adults my children become will very heavily depend on the love, nurture and discipline I give them.

I’ve had many jobs in my life. I worked as a paperboy during high school, a clothing store during university, advocated for kids in the care system and worked for and with refugees from the Middle East before arriving at SPUC. Being a parent comes with more responsibility, requirements, demands, and worry than any other job I can think of.

Not to mention, your job performance review isn’t done on paper, it’s personified in the form of your children!

There are many responsibilities that go with being a parent. However, in a nutshell, the basic ones are to: nurture and educate children, discipline them, manage home and financially support family. However, we are living in a society that cheapens family life and values.  With divorce made easy, adultery trivialised, cohabitating normalised; children too often abandoned by their fathers or mothers; the roles of mother and father ignored in adoption, pornography encouraged to epidemic levels…we really do live in unprecedented times for parents. As Pope St. John Paul II reminds us: "As the family goes, so goes the nation."  Pope John Paul II referred to this condition as contributing to the many societal changes we are facing today. I know there are many wonderful families in our country today.  Parents who have taught and directed their children well.

At SPUC we are committed to supporting and protecting families and defending the rights of parents. We believe that parents should be and are the primary educators of their children in matters relating to personal relationships, marriage, family life and the dignity of human life. We defend the family because unborn children are statistically safer from abortion when their mother and father are married. Indeed, pro-life values are nurtured first and foremost in the family.

This week I thought it would be encouraging and inspiring to hear from some of the parents on the SPUC staff about parenting.

Rhea

Parenting is the core of who I am as a person and has enriched my life beyond what I could express in words. I am a mother of six children, almost grown now, and a grandmother of one. As each child has grown I have had the indescribable experience of seeing the world through their eyes; their joys, sorrows, discoveries and ambitions. It still amazes me how individual each of my children, and grandchild, is. If I were to sum up parenting in one word it would be ‘adventure’.

John Smeaton

"Being a parent has been a simply awesome experience, from the earliest stage of my children’s lives before birth, and at every stage of their lives, from infancy to adulthood. Whatever else I have done, at work or elsewhere, being a parent has absorbed every moment of my being. It’s hardly surprising when you consider how God Himself has ordered His creation. The fourth of the ten commandments, Honour thy Father and thy Mother, is the first of the commandments which deals with how mankind must act towards their fellow human beings. It teaches me that my role as a parent is the most important job on earth. It tells me that all authorities on earth - child, Pope, Prince, politician, teacher or judge - must treat parents with reverence and awe. It explains for me why parenting is such a sublime joy - because the fourth commandment reflects the truth of God’s creation in that parents co-operate with God in the very act of creation and in the nurturing of their children. And for very same reason it explains for me why being a parent involves the greatest suffering a human being can experience. I pray every day with my wife the prayer - that my children will have happiness in this life and in the world to come."

Antonia

Nothing can prepare you for being a parent, but once you have the gift of a child, your life changes for ever. Becoming a mother brought me joys and challenges I could never have imagined. Over the years, every day has brought me something new; from the tragedy of a lost teddy bear to the proud moment of a graduation ceremony. Being a parent is the most important job in the world.

Lucille

There is nothing quite like the joy of holding your new-born baby in your arms and thinking, with the help of God, we created this new human being.  To have that privilege three times over is amazing and to know that your children have grown up as decent citizens, contributing to society, makes you very proud.  To then have seven grandchildren, whom you can love, spoil (and hand back at the end of the day) is truly rewarding. That’s partly why I teach The Billings Ovulation Method, to help others achieve that same joy.