What’s the best parenting advice you’ve ever received?

The best parenting advice I ever received was to view life like a book and to live my life in chapters. Whenever I want to lament over my house not being drop- in guest perfect, or that I don’t always get many things checked off my to-do list, I realize that the time will come when my life will incorporate those things I just can’t get to right now. Living my life in chapters lets me see the humor in raising three kids and not be such a frustrated, crazy parent. Saying to myself “This is the chapter I am in” takes the pressure off from having it all right now to embracing where I am right now. So, I am through my “2 kids in diapers” chapter and am currently in the middle of my “chauffeur duty is a part-time job” chapter. And as I look at my 11 year old, who is my height now, I wistfully think about how life, like a good book, really does seem to be speeding by.

How did you choose your children’s names?

We had no clear system for naming our kids. We picked Brianna for our first child because we both just liked that name. Her middle name begins with a “C”, which is a trend we continued for all three kids. We named our next child, Nia, after a Kwanzaa principle which means “purpose.” We knew the third child would be the last child and when she was also a girl, we gave her the closest name we could think of to make her a junior. My husband’s name is Andrew Eric and we named her Aerica.

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