Re-posted with permission from BlyssCloud

This Saturday, after a long work week, I got up 6 am.  It was still dark.  I cleaned up the garbage that the dog had shredded; made breakfast/lunch/snacks and organized sports equipment for four kids; made my partner a coffee along with mine and pretty cheerfully, considering the scenario, spent the next three hours standing in the (cold) rain, watching the kids play soccer and chatting with parents whose names I didn't know. I was smiley and had even put on lipgloss.

It's literally the opposite of everything I'd naturally choose to do on Saturday (that would be: go to yoga, journal alone, drink coffee and read, also alone) but I did what is a routine weekend morning and was both pretty happy still and most importantly significantly more patient and kind than you might imagine possible.  All of this was made possible because I had vaped throughout the morning and added a few generous glugs of cannabis tincture to my demographically de rigeur kale green smoothie.

 But this morning routine done unmedicated (which is really how I see my cannabis consumption) would have involved my yelling, then guilt (on my part), frustration at the reality that I wouldn't have organized my kids uniforms the night before and a general impatience to move as quickly forward as we could to try and cram in the day.  If I had been hungover (something I gave up just for this reason fourteen years ago when I became a parent) this morning wouldn't have even happened because I wouldn't have gotten out of bed or had the will to leave the house.

 Thoughtful and Deliberate Cannabis Consumption

That's the truth about cannabis consumption that's done in an educated and deliberate way, it can and will make you a better parent.

While all of us define “good parenting” differently, it's generally understood that being a parent requires a level of patience and cheerful approach to monotony that has nothing to do with love and just is. Laundry, lunch, camp signups, homework, playdates, sports schedules.  No matter how much you love being a parent and adore your child most of us have a threshold for cheerfully and kindly reading the same story over and over, or spending hours in a park, or DIYing with construction paper.

But a very light and steady touch of cannabis can change that frame completely.  It can elevate your mood, keep you in the present moment; amp your patience and quiet a mind that is trying to figure out how to get work done/get homework done/ get groceries bought, do something about taxes while watching and entertaining kids.

Life Enhanced by Cannabis

Some of my best moments with my kids, laughing in the sun, relishing our ice-cream cones; snuggled in watching a favourite movie and eating pizza, mucking in or hanging out in our pjs reading an extra chapter out loud of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson have probably happened (and certainly been enhanced) by cannabis.

I regularly gift friends cannabis tinctures or vape pens with instructions on how to use it to optimize their lives.  Let's be honest, literally, all the data tells us that working moms today are more stressed and pressured than ever.  We're working more, parenting more, dealing with our older parents, midlife marriages, career pressures and it's both exhausting and frequently very un-fun.  But if there's a tool that can, without the damages of alcohol take the edge off some that pressure and help you to both relax a bit more, and enjoy the moments as they happen, then I think we should be prescribing cannabis to all parents!

THREE TIPS TO GET STARTED:

• Start Easy. The idea is to hit the optimal cannabis point where you feel happy, easy, relaxed and in the moment but energized.  This means micro-dosing - very small amounts, done frequently so you sustain it without crashing or ever feeling like you are actually "high".
   

• Stay With Sativa:  Unless you're planning to fall asleep for family movie night, look for sativa dominant cultivars. A high CBD blend can be a good way to start since it will help make sure that you never do get too high.
   

• Vape or Tincture:  From our extensive and decades long experience we can officially say that for optimal parenting don't use edibles or raw joints both of which are harsher and more unpredictable.  Instead, we use vape pens or cannabis drops both of which are ideal for micro-dosing.