Pre-Parenting Counseling: Session 1

Most couples go through pre-marital counseling, right?  Well, maybe not....but, many churches do require couples to go through pre-marital counseling prior to getting married.  Since my Pappaw married us, I don't know that it was a "requirement".  But, we chose to go and really learned a lot through the experience.

For that reason, I decided that I wanted us to go to pre-parenting counseling. I figured it would be a proactive way to start this journey.  My goal was for us to "get on the same page" and talk through typical parenting dilemmas.  Who is going to change the baby?  What are our discipline philosophies? What things are non-negotiable and what things can be compromised on?  That kind of thing..... So I found a christian counselor in New Bern and made the contact!

Well, today was our first counseling session and I think we were both excited. The counselor started with basic questions: birthday, age, what we love about one another, how long we've known each other (9 years-- holy smokes, time flies), how long we've been married, etc.  From there, she started discovering things about each of us and eventually centered in on our biggest difference as parents at this point in time.  And I must say that she hit the nail on the head.....even if it isn't the direction that I wanted things to go in. So, therefore, we will now "get on the same page" in a much different way than I imagined.....but a very necessary way. After gleaning all kinds of information, she discerned that Jacob was the confident, "everything's going to be okay and work out" parent.  I, on the other hand, am the scared parent who lacks confidence in my abilities. Therefore, for the next however long it takes- we will be working on "getting me on the same page" as Jacob.  Is it what I originally wanted?  No.  Would I have originally gone if I had known this would be the outcome? Most likely not.  But, God has crazy ways of working and speaking through others. So, we're in it until......

Our assignment this week: come up with scenarios/"what ifs" and talk about how we each would handle the situation.  Our next meeting- next Saturday!