Sadie Robertson Huff, Husband Christian Share ‘Refining’ Parenting Journey
By Movieguide® Contributor
As Christian podcaster Sadie Robertson Huff and her husband Christian Huff prepare for daughters Honey and Haven’s birthdays in May, the couple shared what they have discovered about parenting in this last year.
“We just think Honey, the things she’s saying right now are so funny and so good that we were like, we have got to get her on the podcast,” Robertson Huff said as she introduced her soon-to-be three-year-old on the “WHOA That’s Good” podcast.
“[S]he gets really nervous for things and gets shy, even though at home, she’s not shy at all, but that’s how I was when I was little,” she said of the toddler.
The DUCK DYNASTY alum said that one thing that has surprised her as a parent is her daughter’s moments of insecurity and shyness. She uses singing as an example.
“She’ll get nervous to sing, and she’s like, ‘I can’t do that. I can’t sing.’ And I’m, ‘That’s crazy. You’re two years old…you’re so good at singing,’’’ Sadie said. “But I’m so nervous about that. I get so nervous to sing. I feel like, okay, are you insecure in that way because you saw me be insecure that way, or is it just a generational thing or is that just like in you?”
Sadie said seeing her daughter’s insecurity has made her more “intentional” in the ways she speaks around her to instill confidence.
“I want to show her that you can do things that make you scared, you know?” she said.
The Louisiana native recalls how her mom, Korie, helped her deal with fear growing up.
“She was such a good mom to me, and I remember the scriptures that she spoke over me: ‘Do not be dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen you. I will uphold you in my righteous right hand.’ I would probably only know that verse by heart because my mom always spoke it over me,” the 26-year-old said.
In another episode of her podcast, Robertson Huff shared another lesson that her mom taught her about overcoming fear.
“She’s like, ‘Being afraid is not a good enough excuse to not do something.’ She’s like, ‘Look, you can have other excuses, and I might listen to it, and I might be “Okay,” but if you ever come to me, and you say I’m not going to do it because I’m afraid, then you’re doing it,’” Robertson Huff recalled.
“I think our generation focuses so much on not having any anxiety, and it’s like sometimes you need a little healthy dose of anxiety to get you going. And you know, sometimes that just means it matters. It just means you care,” she went on to say.
Sadie and Christian share that they’re learning parenting is a balance between encouragement and overbearance.
“You don’t want to force your kids to do anything, but then again, you know, we don’t want to be those parents that just never push them,” Christian said.
He said that they are dealing with that balance as their oldest, Honey, has been going through the toddler years and dealing with inevitable tantrums of that age.
“[I]t’s a new challenge, and it takes more patience and more just self-control to not get frustrated or even just flustered at a situation, so I think that’s for me, the biggest thing I’ve learned this year,” he said.
Sadie said that it has been a process and that through each season of life, God is preparing them for the next, even if they might not feel ready for it.
“You’re learning through the whole thing, and it’s hard, and it’s refining, but, man, it makes you so much better as a person,” Sadie said.
After the birth of Honey, she was asked how many kids the couple wants, to which she told E! News: “One day we’ll say four kids, one day we’ll say three.”
She said that they’re open to adoption as well. Three of her five siblings are adopted.
Sadie revealed in the past her battle with anxiety after the birth of her firstborn as reported by Movieguide®:
“It was like, so many emotions happening that I couldn’t really fight the fear like I normally do. All of a sudden, I was just in a state of anxiety. I didn’t even realize that it was creeping us as much as it was.”
“That is such a toxic brain spiral to go through that it will manifest itself in some way,” she added. “I didn’t even realize that those thoughts throughout the day were making me jittery, were making me have all these feelings of anxiety and were making my chest feel super tight, like, I couldn’t breathe.”
Robertson Huff recalled a particular moment where her husband found her crying in her closet alone.
“I just said, ‘I’m so scared. I’m so scared that something is going to happen to [Honey],’” Robertson explained. “It was so real. I was like, ‘I’m so scared that something is going to happen to her. I’m so scared that she’s not really OK. What if whenever she got stuck [during delivery], the oxygen actually cut off to her head. I’m scared that something happens to me and I am not going to get to be the mom that I want to be to her.”
Despite the couple’s happiness and thankfulness to God for blessing them with a child, Robertson Huff said she was still fearful.
“I didn’t understand how I could be so happy and so joyful, yet also experience so much fear,” Robertson said. “I realized that you don’t have to choose just one of those feelings. You don’t have to choose fear and trade out all the joy. You don’t have to choose joy and trade out all the fear. It can actually go hand in hand.”
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