Permission to Be Human: Releasing the Pressure to Get It Right

RE-PARENTING FOR SENSITIVE ADULTS

Jessica Hicks, NP

6/8/2025

Permission to Be Human: Releasing the Pressure to Get It Right
What if healing looks less like perfection—and more like presence?

By Jessica Hicks, Truth Love and Connection

Sensitive parents often carry an unspoken burden: the pressure to “do it right.” You’ve read the books. You’ve learned the scripts. You try so hard to regulate before responding, to validate instead of dismissing, to never raise your voice…

And still—there are days when you snap.
You shut down.
You miss the moment.

And that familiar inner voice pipes up:
You’re ruining everything.
You’re no better than your parents.
You’re not safe for your child.

But here’s the truth that shame doesn’t want you to remember:
Healing doesn’t mean you never mess up. It means you know how to come back.

Your child doesn’t need a perfect parent.
They need a real one. One who feels, apologizes, repairs, and reconnects.

The beauty of this path—of parenting and reparenting—isn’t that it’s tidy or scripted.
It’s that it’s alive. Dynamic. Full of chances to grow.

When you rupture, you can repair.
When you lose your center, you can return to it.
When you forget how far you’ve come, you can choose to remember.

In fact, some of the most healing moments come after the mistakes—when you hold your child’s face, offer a quiet “I’m sorry,” and model what self-compassion actually looks like.

And when you extend that same compassion inward—when you stop punishing yourself for being human—you begin to unlearn the lie that love has to be earned through performance.

So here’s your permission slip:

  • To get it wrong and still be deeply worthy

  • To be tired and still be doing the work

  • To be real—not perfect—as an act of radical healing

Because every time you soften toward yourself, you soften the world your child grows up in.

What if parenting your child is also an invitation to re-parent yourself?
If you’re on a healing path, our immersion-style guided meditations and self-reflection tools offer powerful support. And our Navigating Sensitivity Program will walk you through the deeper process of reconnecting with your truth, your needs, and your nervous system—all at your own pace.