Our community is made up of brilliant artists, creatives and entrepreneurs, but many of them are also dedicated parents and so we asked them an in port at question: If you are a parent, what do you think is the most important thing you’ve done as a parent in terms of the impact on your children?

Mya Johnson | Mother, Small Candle Business Owner + Maker

I am a single parent of four beautiful kids, 3 of which I birthed and one of which I adopted. I believe the most important thing that I have done to impact my children is make sure you are kind to other and keep moving. By trade and career, I am in the human services umbrella. Currently I am a school-based clinician. My oldest (14 years) has seen and heard me speak about my work and now wants to follow suite and asks questions about my major and what kind of people I help and says she also would like to help people. The next impact is “keep going”. I think it’s very important as a parent in general to always model the behavior you want your kids to have. Read more>>

Molly McKinney | Wedding and Portrait Photographer

In terms of being a parent who runs their own business, I know one of the most important impacts I’ve had on my children is modeling for them that if they are willing to work hard and do hard things, then they can be successful without sacrificing what is most important to them. My desire, as unpopular as it may seem, has always been to be married, have children, and stay home with my kids. After my husband and I got married and I became pregnant with twins, we realized very quickly how difficult and near impossible that desire would be on a single teacher’s salary. After only a few months after their birth, we had thousands and thousands in medical bills from a high risk pregnancy, maxed out credit cards, and not a lot of options. Read more>>

Houston Towe | Child Actor

As a parent of a child actor, my main responsibility is his health and safety, especially on set. But, being a child actor also brings different challenges and concerns beyond that of a children not in the industry. With set school, working on set, auditioning, training, and dealing with the amount of exposure he gets, my main duty is to maintain some sort of normalcy. Houston enjoys acting and loves being on set, but he also loves being a kid. So, I, as a parent, need to be very cognizant of that. Whether its to maintain a good group of friends, extra curricular activities, monitoring the stress (if any) of auditioning, instilling confidence etc. Read more>>

Teresa Morales | Former Educator & Author

I am a mom to three little boys who are my world, my inspiration, and my motivation to always keep going. The most important thing I think I’ve done as a parent to leave an impact on my children is showing them that anything is possible. If they work hard, they can achieve their dreams and be whoever they want to be, doing whatever they want to do in life. My boys were one of the main reasons why I decided to write a book and pursue it wholeheartedly. Read more>>