2. Things do not always go according to plan.

Think back on your life, what were you thinking you’d be doing these days. I would not have thought 25 years ago that I would be living in Victoria—although I am very happy to be living here—or even publishing a magazine. Starting a career in education was not even my initial intention.

Some of us may have thought that we’d be married with children earlier or later. We may have planned to have fewer or more children.

Some of us may be separated or divorced and that certainly wasn’t the plan.

In many cases we need to move on and not dwell on what might have been. We need to deal with our present situation and move forward.

Our children are more resilient than we give them credit. Having been in education there were many times when parents would be upset about a change in plans at the school. Their child didn’t get the teacher they wanted or they ended up changing classes in mid year. It was more often the parents were upset than the children.

Mistakes are made. Giving permission for ourselves and our kids to make mistakes.

Sometimes I feel we as parents are over-involved with our children’s lives - we are micromanaging our kids. Their life is far more planned than ours was at their age. We have to let go and let them be kids.

Planning is good and needs to be done but if things go awry, we must learn from it.

This leads up to the next point—Life is not fair!