Want To Have A Wonderful Parenting Day With Your Kids? Do This To Help You Achieve It.

Making du'a is so helpful in parenting.

For both long-term things and short-term things...

Long term things such as asking Allah to grant our children eemaan, 'amal saalih and make them successful and content in both lives.

I find it especially useful, though - and a form of solace - for the day-to-day with our kids.

It can provide us with comfort to think that if we've whispered up about it, then Allah heard us and will help us.

When we're waking up in the night, for example, to nurse our babies, we could whisper up:

"Yaa Allah, put barakah in my sleep and miracles in my days".

(This used to be my night time du'a in the time of multiple night wakings! 🥱)

And, alhamdulillah, I'd often find some level of ease or aid in the next day, even if I felt tired (and of course, beyond that, we could consider asking for help if we need a good solid nap or a break).

For me, ease the next day (post my night nursing du'a) sometimes looked like:

▪️The kids seemed to be getting along alhamdulillah (so less help needed from me).

▪️I may have still felt tired but whilst the kids were playing independently with ease, I could enjoy reading on the sofa with a good book for 20 minutes.

▪️ I felt nourishing moments of connection.

▪️ I didn't feel as tired as I would've thought - that barakah was put in my sleep, alhamdulillah 😉

Asking Allah for a good day

I remember a sister once saying at a BeingMe conference years ago to ask Allah for a good day, and her saying that it works.

✔️ It does. Allah responds.

Asking Allah for a good day is also covered by some of the sunnah morning adhkaar.

The words "O Allah, we ask you for the good of this day" are included in 2️⃣ of the morning du'as.

I know it can be hard to get our dhikr in in the mornings when our kids are little...

...It can be helpful in that circumstance to consider committing to just 1️⃣ sunnah du'a. Just one. We can add more, when we can, as a bonus. But we can start with one.

And/or, we could say something like:

🤲🏽 "Yaa Rabb, grant us a good day; help me and grant us ease."

🤲🏽 "Yaa Allah, grant us a peaceful, connected day, filled with ease."

We can also consider coupling our du'a with setting intentions for the day with our kids, if it works for us.

When I do this (not often lately), my intentions for the day are often summed up in words such as:

- Allah.

- Calm.

- Kind.

(You could consider other words such as 'connect', 'peace', 'presence' - or other words you’d like to focus on/experience - as intentions for the day)

When I do this, I usually jot my words down on my day's plan, if I'm using one...(I haven't for a while).

If we choose the above words (Allah, calm, kind), they could mean:

▪️That we wanna do everything for the sake of Allah.

▪️And calm and kind cover the kind of interactions we want to have with our children.

When I choose these words, do I have these intentions in mind all day? Erm, nope!

But having the intention and having them written down on my daily plan means I'm more likely to remember them or call them to mind a bit more than if I didn't consider or set intentions to begin with.

They're something to come back to. Anchors ❤️

So a parenting superpower is preceding our parenting days with du'a.

Also, remember that the Prophet (s) said:

"Du'a is worship". (At-Tirmidhi)

So engaging in du'a is engaging in worship: our very purpose of creation.

A nice way to start the day with the kids, no? 🙂

And remember as you parent, that it's not practice makes perfect, it's practice makes progress ❤️

Photo Credit: Faseeh Fawaz