24/08/2025
Connection is built in the small, consistent ways.
Not in the birthday parties or the “teachable moments.”
Not in the Pinterest lunches or the family vacations.
Those are nice. But they’re not the foundation.
Connection is built when your child slams the door and you still come back.
When they scream “Go away!” and you stay near.
When they melt down over the green cup and you don’t try to logic them out of it.
It’s built when you breathe through your own frustration.
When you choose presence over punishment.
When you say, “I’m here,” instead of, “You’re being ridiculous.”
It’s built in those hard, messy, ordinary Tuesday afternoons
when everything in you wants to yell
but instead, you sit on the floor beside them.
One of my clients told me her son was having meltdown after meltdown after school.
Everything was a fight. Shoes. Homework. Dinnertime.
But instead of snapping, she tried something new.
She said, “You’re safe to have big feelings here. I’m not going anywhere.”
And then she just… stayed.
No lectures. No time-outs. No “teaching.”
Just a steady, calm presence. Over and over again.
And after weeks of just being there, her son finally opened up.
Tears in his eyes, he told her what had really been going on at school.
That moment? That conversation?
It didn’t come because she fixed everything.
It came because he felt safe enough to share it.
Connection isn’t a single thing you say or do.
It’s the feeling our kids get when they know they don’t have to be perfect to be loved.
