I know I’m not the only one feeling like this.
Caring deeply about what’s happening in the world. Making the effort to pay attention. Your convictions are strong, as are your opinions and values. A constant nagging sense of what really matters.
But your life right now?
It looks like daycare drop-offs. Work deadlines. Snack negotiations. Half-read articles and unfinished thoughts.
Maybe you used to show up differently.
You marched at protests.
You organized or fundraised.
You spoke up more.
And now you’re a parent, swamped with caregiving responsibilities, there’s this quiet, uncomfortable question sitting underneath your day-to-day life:
Am I doing enough?
Or even:
Have I become someone who just… watches?
For parents—especially those who were once highly engaged—this season can feel like a loss.
Not because you don’t love your child.
Not because you don’t want this life.
But because your access to impact changed overnight.
Before, your contribution to the resistance felt:
Visible
Immediate
Reinforced by community
Now, it’s:
Fragmented
Often invisible
Measured in moments no one else sees
And your brain does what brains do—it compares.
Look at who I used to be.
Look at who I am now.
And the gap feels like failure.
A Different Way to Understand This Season
I’m here to remind you that you haven’t lost your impact (this is what I have to remind myself, too.)
Your impact has changed from something that felt immediately gratifying (because of course screaming with a bunch of like-minded people feels like you’re truly doing something—and yes it’s a whole other post to go into on how impactful attending a march actually is) to a much longer view.
Something that’s slower and harder to measure.
But that doesn’t make it less powerful.
I’d offer that your intentionality, your decisions, and your impact as a parent is foundational, and an incredible form of protest.
The Work That Actually Changes Things
If you want to understand how parenting becomes a form of protest, adopt a long game mindset.
You’re not just raising a child. You’re shaping a future adult who will:
make decisions
navigate power
consume information
build relationships
participate in systems that already exist
And the skills they’ll need don’t start in adulthood.
They start in your living room, at your kitchen table, through conversations in the car.
On this episode of the Long Game Parent podcast, we talk about three key life skills that kids need support developing in order to become adults who are the anthesis of our current national leadership.
Those are self-awareness, media literacy, and relational courage.
Through parenting that focuses on these three things, you’re teaching them:
how to question
how to express themselves
how to stay in hard conversations
Those skills will create the space and confidence for your kid to speak up as an adult—in relationships, in workplaces, in systems that need challenging.
Parenting is protest because what you’re intentionally doing every day—even when it feels small—is shaping how your child will move through the world for the rest of their lives.
A Moment to Reflect
If your parenting today is your form of protest…
What’s one parenting moment this week—no matter how small—where you stood for the world you want your child to grow up in?
I’d love to hear your responses and thoughts in the comments.
Listen to the full episode now.
If this post resonated, please share it with another parent who might be carrying that same painful, quiet question: Am I doing enough?
Remember, you’re not doing less.
You’re playing the long game.
Always rooting for you,
Lauryn
