Tiny Steps, Big Resilience: Lessons from Parenting and Publishing

As a children’s book author, I used to imagine the moment my first book would arrive in the world; bright, joyful, and right on time. Instead, it waddled, slithered, and slowly crawled its way through delays, edits, and unexpected obstacles. In hindsight, that journey felt a lot like parenting.

Parenting rarely looks the way we picture it. It’s messy and loud and full of small, strange mysteries. But it’s also full of resilience—mostly ours.

Some days the victory isn’t a peaceful breakfast or a perfectly packed backpack. Sometimes the win is getting out the door at all.

Writing my book while raising kids and managing a busy broadcast career taught me that progress rarely moves in a straight line. Many pauses occurred, heck, my kids are now young adults! But forward is forward.

Some days you move like a duck, busy and a little chaotic. Other days you move like a snake, quietly navigating twists and turns. And sometimes you’re a turtle, inching forward so slowly you wonder if you’re moving at all.

The delays in releasing my book felt discouraging at times, yet they also reminded me of something parenting teaches every day: growth takes the time it takes.

Whether you’re raising children or chasing a dream, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s persistence.

Keep waddling. Keep slithering. Keep crawling.

You’re still moving forward, and that counts. 

-Janice