Does Parenting Feel Overwhelming? 2 Lessons from Conference to Help You Appreciate Your Kids
In the middle of your love, worries, hopes, and dreams for your little ones, don’t forget to pause and be amazed.
After a leaked diaper change, a rejected bottle, many hours of attempted soothing, and everything else I could think to try, I was out of ideas. I had no idea what my toddler needed to get back to sleep, and it was killing me inside.
Does this sound relatable?
As a new parent, I definitely know it can feel overwhelming at times. It’s easy to worry about caring for and teaching our children. Are we doing it right? What’s the best thing for each child? Are we going to mess them up forever?!
But messages from the April 2025 general conference remind us that it’s important to pause and remember who our children truly are and that we have things to learn from them too. Doing so will help us take a step back and gain perspective on the time we spend with them. It can also help us love them as God loves them.
Here are two messages I heard during conference that I hope can help all of us in our sometimes-overwhelming parenting endeavors:
Remember Who They Are
Is your child rambunctious? timid? loud? sweet? bright? enigmatic? all of the above and more?
Whoever they are and whoever they grow to be, one thing will never change: their divine identity as a son or daughter of God.
Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
“We really are God’s children. That truth is breathtaking! Stunning! And it is not figurative. …
“You really are his cherished daughter. You really are his precious son.”
Maybe you applied this truth to yourself when you heard it in conference, but did you shift the lens to your kids for a second?
In this time when they’re small and chaotic, remember who they were before they came here—and who they have the potential to become. They are God’s precious sons and cherished daughters.
In the middle of your love, worries, hopes, and dreams for your little ones, don’t forget to pause and be amazed. They are children of God and He knows your children as perfectly as He knows you (that’s 100 percent perfectly, for the record). When you see your kids as God’s children too, it’s a lot harder to feel alone in your parenthood.
Learn from Them
Sometimes in the middle of tantrums, squabbles, or sleepless nights, it can be easy to forget the purity and humility our children have.
But the Savior invites us to remember, not forget! He taught:
“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4).
When he spoke of Christ calling down heavenly fire and angels to encircle the children of the Nephites, President Jeffrey R. Holland, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, noted, “We don’t know what prompted all of that, but I have to think it had something to do with their purity and innocence, their inborn humility, and what it could bring to our lives if we retain it.”
What good, divine qualities can you purposefully celebrate in your children and try to practice for yourself? Learning from their humility and goodness helps you prepare for heaven—and equips you to prepare them for heaven too. It’s a win-win!
Appreciating Precious Time
I know that worrying about our children or feeling overwhelmed doesn’t mean we’re failing at parenting. Those feelings can come and go! But I know that by loving our children, remembering their divine identities, and learning from their Christlike attributes, we can better appreciate the precious time we have with them, even in those moments when things are hard.
Following this counsel from our prophets will bless us and our children as we try to become like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They are definitely cheering us on!