The present hits differently when you spend so much time in the past.
For most people, I think—at least people in the West—the present is something you impatiently tolerate until the thing that you’re waiting for happens. It’s the elevator to the next floor, a rung on the ladder to success, and the thing we give a lot of lip service to “seizing” but spend a lot of time frustrated by as we crane our necks to see The Next Thing.
Historians (even those of varying and conflicting worldviews) have a unique viewpoint on the present. We know it to be the future for people of the past, and the past for the people of the future—an important period of time in the human story. The present isn’t something to tolerate: it’s history happening in REAL TIME.
I’ve said this before, but I personally believe this historical perspective can help us to “parent backwards”. The reason? The present is the only version of the past that you can change.
If you want your children to remember you as “always being there”, you have to…actually be there. Today, in the present. Because before you know it, today was last week. Today quickly becomes last year and last decade. The good old days are happening NOW, while the days are still young.
To have your children grow to have fond memories of their childhood, you have to actually work to create those memories right now. To have them remember that your parenting was kind, instructive, and compassionate, you have to demonstrate that TODAY. It brings a sense of sobriety and intentionality to parenting that is easy to sweep aside while you’re waiting for tomorrow.
Parenting backwards is looking ten, twenty, fifty years into the future, and making the necessary adjustments NOW so that the future looks more like what you were hoping it would.
That’s not to say that you can control the future, or that careful planning will prevent circumstances outside of your control, but parenting backwards works to look at the present as an opportunity rather than a stepping stone to the next best job/house/car/season of life/etc. Parenting backwards is deliberate, intentional parenting, looking for opportunities to develop their future character and potential memories and being grateful that you have the chance before it’s too late. It’s about offering them the childhood you hope they will remember positively.
Not every historian is a parent, but it’s possible that every parent is a historian.
The Homeschool Historian 
One of the gifts homeschooling parents give is time together. I’m so thankful I did. We created so many memories learning and playing together.
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