Thinking about having a baby? One of the most important things, I think, when entering into the commitment of having a child is being on the same page with your other half.
When we got married, Sean and I knew we wanted to have children and to build a loving and open family. We've always been willing to sit down together and ask ourselves the big and important questions.
In doing so, our hopes are that our children will grow to be loving and secure adults who can make a difference in the world. Plus, communicating regularly about our feelings as parents helps us to stay strong and united.
The following are some important questions you should consider before you decide to bring a new life into the world. Of course, there are probably lost more questions that can be added into the mix, but hopefully these questions will help lead you to ask more questions and find important answers along the way.
- Are you ready to have a child?
- Why do you want to be a parent?
- What are my greatest fears as a parent? What are fears I have for my children? How could these affect my parenting?
- Which is more important to develop, obedience or responsibility? How do you plan to do this?
- What is the difference between discipline, punishment, and redirection? Which do you plan to implement? When and how?
- Would you spank your children?
- What does respecting the father look like in your house? Respecting the mother?
- How would you handle a situation in which our children’s grandparent disagreed, openly opposed or defied our parenting method(s)?
- Name five ways you want to have fun with our kids.
- How would you protect our children from negative influences?
- What will you do when our children wake up at night (feedings, nightmares, bed-wetting, sickness, habitual waking, storms, asking for a parent)? Will you let them climb into our bed if scared?
- What activities or skills do you want our children to learn and why?
- When does mom get a break? What does that look like? When does dad get a break? What does that look like?
- Would you want our kids to go to college? Would we pay for it, or would they have to pay for it themselves?
- How long would you allow our kids to live at home? Would you be okay if they came and lived at home as adults?
