Introduction

Welcome to Episode 132 of the Being Human Podcast:  We Didn’t Plan to Have Seven Kids: Accommodating Life w/ Barbra Bottaro

This week, Dr. Greg welcomes his wife Barbra (and their baby, David) to the show for a fun episode about the joys and challenges of the vocation to marriage and the call to be generous in love! 

 

Discussed in this episode: 

• Learning how to parent as a process of trial and error, learning from mistakes, and adapting; 

• Relying on God's grace and others in one’s community as necessary when  navigating the challenges of family life; 

• How the spirit of generosity in love that Christians are called to is being eroded by the contraceptive mentality prevalent in our culture;

• Accommodating life rather than having life accommodate to one’s desires and needs;

• The family as a community and school of love and the natural progression of having children; 

• The importance of trusting God to provide for what is needed for the lives He entrusts to one’s care; 

• Love as a duty, responsibility, and challenge rather than just a good feeling;

• Striving to give 100% to one’s spouse in marriage rather than relying on a 50/50 split of responsibilities; 

• The importance of being intentional in noticing and caring for each child's needs as a way to teach them self-worth;

• The necessity of working through wounds from one’s family-of-origin in order not to pass them along to one’s children; 

• The great need for parental love in our culture and ways that couples can love others without being a biological parent; 

• Complementarity between the married and consecrated vocations and how each vocation can benefit the other. 

 

Resources mentioned or relevant:

• Letter to Families from Pope John Paul II; 

• A Marriage Built to Last - Dr. Greg’s 8-part relationships course; 

• Need help? Schedule a free consultation call with someone on our team to discuss how we can support you;

• Learn about IDDM (Mentorship), our new model of accompaniment;

• Sign up for Being Human, our weekly newsletter, to stay up to date on the exciting developments at CatholicPsych;

• Visit our website to read the CatholicPsych blog, shop in the CatholicPsych bookshop, or discover other resources we have available; 

• Download The Integrated App for access to free audio exercises, the Catholic Mindfulness Virtual Retreat, courses, prayer resources, and more; 

• Become a member of the Integrated Life Community to get access to every course Dr. Greg has created, plus the opportunity to participate in Integrated LIVE’s - weekly, Mentor hosted Q&As covering topics like boundaries, communication, trauma, forgiveness, and more!

• Join the waitlist to be notified about our next Open House to learn more about the new CPMAP certification!

 

Contact us! Have a topic or a question you would like Dr. Greg to address on the podcast? Want to give some feedback about this episode? Email us at beinghuman@catholicpsych.com - we would love to hear from you!

 

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