12 Parenting Lessons from My 12 Years of Being A Mother

Donnabeth Aniban
5 min readMay 8, 2023
Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

This is my 12th year as a mother. I still have a long way to go, but I’ve come this far with a grateful heart and a hopeful spirit.

Parenting is a learning process. For the past seasons and the present, these nuggets of wisdom I learned from books, mentors, other parents, social media, the Bible, and my own experience helped me navigate this rollercoaster ride of parenting.

1. Asking for help and accepting help is healthy for everyone.

There’s no shame in needing help. The old adage “It takes a village to raise a child” is still true in every sense no matter how advanced our society gets. Everyone’s circle looks different and you may not get all the help you need, but take advantage of all the help available. Need assistance with anything? Ask someone. Don’t overthink. They might say no, but a yes is worth the try. Did someone offer help in any way? Don’t overthink, say yes, please! Lightening the load for you is helping your child too.

2. Pick your battles.

If you let everything get to your nerves, you will be one perpetually angry, nagging, and ugly mom. Raising children entails plenty of demands, disappointments, and disagreements. Leaving a wide room for mistakes on both ends will allow you…

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Donnabeth Aniban

Mom since 2011. Filipino. Former nurse and teacher. Writer, entrepreneur, and law student atm.