8. How to Measure Your Success as a Parent

How can you tell if you are successful as a parent? We might be tempted to measure our success by any of the following:

• What other people say about our parenting
• How quickly our children obey or comply
• Our kids' grades
• Our kids' extracurricular achievements
• How happy our kids are
• How cute our kids are
• How quickly our children pass developmental milestones
• Whether our children have everything they want materially

The problem is, none of these metrics are completely within your control.

God is the most successful parent—we know this because He is perfect. He is all knowing and therefore His parenting style is the BEST model for our own parenting. Yet if we measured His success as a parent by any of the standards above, He might not look successful.

So how CAN we measure parenting success?

In this episode, I'm recommending that you measure your success as a parent by your relationship with your child. And by "relationship," I mean how you relate to your child. How you think and feel about them. How you treat them.

The magic of this metric is that it is dependent on only one person: YOU. You can have a good relationship with your child even if your child doesn't have a good relationship with you. Such is the case for God, who relates to all of His children in the most beautiful, loving way, no matter how they relate to Him.

Scripture references:

Luke 15:11–32 (The Prodigal Son)

Doctrine & Covenants 4:5

Alma 32:21

Romans 8:28

1 Corinthians 13:4–8