Parenting and magic

Nellie over at A Bit of Gardening Spirit has been writing about parenting lately, and is putting out a call for people to start a cooperative blog about pagan parenting issues. I'm totally behind the blog in whatever way I can be supportive... I think it's a fantastic idea. I often wonder about how to teach my kids about what I believe and what I do, but in such a way that it's clear that it's a decision that each person makes on their own (or should, I believe). And maybe that's too much right now when they're 4 and 6, but it's where I'm headed. So, if you're interested in taking part please contact Nellie at her blog.

In the meantime, I'll give you a flavor of my pagan parenting, LOL... this is what I do for my kids when they have trouble sleeping.

I have a small bowl of flour, that I did a very short ritual over in the moonlight. I call it "magic fairy sleeping dust". When the girls have trouble going to sleep I get some on my fingers and sprinkle it over them and say:

Fairies of the stars, fairies of the moon,
Please let "name" fall asleep soon.
With good dreams through the night,
Let her wake happy, in the morning light.

I then tell them that it only works if you lay down quiet and still and feel it soak into your bones.

I figure it's a spell, and it has lots of the general elements of a ritual... and yet it only takes a few seconds to do. It also seems to work, especially on my older daughter who really resonates with this kind of thing.