In Depth:  Katie Holloway

imperfect parenting

Katie Holloway

At the time of writing, we are in the short period between our two children’s birthdays. My husband and I have been chatting about the fact that choosing and giving gifts to our kids is one of our favourite parts of being parents. It gives us the chance to consider each child and their likes, their skills, their personalities, and the people they are becoming as they turn another year older.

I genuinely think that I love seeing my kids’ faces when they open a gift I’ve chosen for them more than I love receiving presents myself. (That said, I may have shed a tear when presented with the finger-knitted snake my son had lovingly made for me this Christmas.) But even though I know God is my Father, I don’t often think of Him in this way: the Father who loves to give good gifts to His children, who delights in them receiving good things from Him. And as such, I’m missing out.

imperfect parenting

Katie Holloway

As our eldest hits double figures, we’re tentatively considering secondary schools, which is why you’ll now find me on the school run quizzing all the parents I know with older kids about their school experiences. One such conversation led to me chatting with a Christian mum about the way faith issues are presented.

It was around the time of Charlie Kirk’s murder and this mum told me her daughter had come home saying they’d discussed his death in the classroom. That a teacher had presented Kirk as somebody who stood for something “not very nice”, but apparently hadn’t gone into details. Having not heard of him before, this teenage girl asked her parents about him. They explained that actually the man was a Christian, and much of what he stood for was Biblical.

imperfect parenting

Katie Holloway

Whether you mark it in a formal way or not, Advent is a season of waiting. I don’t think there’s a single child in the country this month who’s not counting “how many sleeps” until Christmas Day, even while their parents are silently hoping for just “a few more sleeps” to get everything done.

Waiting is hard. Though we likely don’t find it as hard to wait for Christmas as our kids (though maybe you do!), as adults we still find waiting hard. Whether we’re waiting for an appointment, to find out some news, for our winter cold to get better, for God to change our circumstances… we don’t like waiting.

imperfect parenting

Katie Holloway

There’s nothing quite like a new experience to reveal our hearts, is there?

As I’m writing this, I’m getting my eldest (who is nine) ready to go to a camp for the first time. I knew she would be a mixture of nervous and excited. What’s surprised me is how I’m reacting to the preparations.