Life before babies
I've been a practicing witch since I was 15 years old. I had the freedom to develop my practice, to figure out what felt wrong or right, and to learn (the hard way) how to protect myself and my energy. I thought I had it figured out.
Then I had babies.
Life after babies
I'm going to be completely and 100% honest with you. That first year after a new baby my spiritual practice went out the window. My sole focus was on baby gaining weight, neuro-development, learning the best and safest ways to raise my child in a way that fit my families needs and daily life.
After finding our groove though, it was time to start finding me and going back to my practice.
Don't get me wrong, we spent many days and hours barefoot in the grass and under all types of weather, we still do! But once they're a little older its easier to focus on your connection with nature and less on whether or not they're putting a grasshopper into their mouth.
Now that my children are older, 6 and 3, we spend our days still barefoot in the grass, but now we talk to the plants as we tend to them, we thank our harvest for feeding us, we leave offerings for the fairies and spirits of the land. We celebrate and discuss the different holidays on the wheel of the year and why they're important in our cycle. We cook with intentional ingredients and create tinctures together.
My children are now apart of my practice and in many ways they have changed my practice in a way that I find much more endearing. Instead of seances and, lets be honest, just plain and stupid searching for trouble, I now focus on protecting me and my family's energies and physical bodies. I focus on small daily magics, that in the end make life feel big. My spirituality feels so much deeper and more connected than ever now that my little chaos goblins are involved.
Spiritual Activities Together:
Here are a few activities that me and kiddos do together that I think anyone can incorporate:
Fairy Offerings:
Please be advised, I don't think this should be done unless you plan on establishing and maintaining a relationship with your local fae creatures as being inconsistent with your offerings can lead to otherworldly mischief.
My children and I leave offerings of song and dance almost daily in our garden, playfulness is a very underrated offering!
On full moons we leave a little pat of butter in the garden and let the fairies know that it is for them.
This is a very easy and also a very fun to involve your children in your practice.
We've also been known to make a sweet milk (just a bowl of milk with sprinkles) out in the garden as well in hopes to attract a unicorn. This is cultivating a sense of wonder in our children, and I do believe an open heart and open mind is the best way to deepen anyone's spirituality no matter their path.
Kitchen Witchery:
My goblins and I often cook together.
For breakfast we make oatmeal and when adding cinnamon we go over the properties of protection, prosperity, luck, and healing.
For dinner we cook with a lot of herbs and again, we make sure to go over the properties together. Because its summer and basil grows well where we're at, we often cook with basil and discuss its properties. And everytime we make spaghetti we all make a wish on the bay leaf before adding it to the sauce.
Again, just little ways to incorporate spirituality and wonder into daily activities.
Hearth Witchery:
Did anyone else's house explode after having kids? We're constantly cleaning in my house haha, but with that comes fun opportunities to add magic.
One of my favorite ways to do this is through mopping. My kids looooove to mop!
We add basil to our mop water, for protection, prosperity, love, and basically all things good. And sometimes we add lavender for all of its magical benefits as well. The kids get the floor nice and clean with the basil mop water and then they play penguin. They slip and slide on their bellies all over the now basil and lavender scented floor and have a really fun time. Now I have clean floors and happy babies. And we all participated in a magical way to clean the home.
Spirituality & Kids
Just like with any spiritual practice, you can easily incorporate your kiddos into your practices. It won't be as peaceful, it won't be as quiet, but it can be more fun! It's all about just finding ways to involve them into your daily life (easier said than done, I know).