Hard Work of Parenting Pays Off
Posted: Thursday, December 18, 2008
by Kathy Slattengren
Priceless Parenting
Being a parent certainly presents plenty of difficult
challenges (who can ever forget trying to stay cool, calm and collected while
your child has a meltdown!). However, the time and energy you put into
becoming the best possible parent you can be starts paying off when your
children become teenagers. Now that my
youngest recently turned 13 and my oldest is 16 we are starting to enjoy the
benefits.
They're teens who are generally responsible, helpful
and a lot of fun to have around. Did we
just get lucky? No, we spent a lot of time
learning from parenting experts and then invested significant time and energy into
changing our own behavior. We spent years
practicing things like responding with empathy instead of anger to misbehavior,
guiding our children to solving their own problems instead of solving it for
them and avoiding lecturing, yelling or nagging.
They are not rebellious teenagers because they don't
have a reason to be rebellious. At this
point they are in control of most of the important decisions in their lives
like: when/where/how to do homework, who to hang out with, what to do with
their free time, how to handle time commitment conflicts, when to go to bed and
when to get up. We've slowly built up
their level of freedom and responsibility over the years so that they now have
the skills to make wise decisions.
Could they make a major mistake like trying drugs or
getting pregnant? This certainly could
happen but is less likely because they know they are responsible for dealing
with the consequences of their decisions.
We've often told them that the
quality of their lives will depend on the decisions they make.
Where are these parenting skills taught? You can discover the universal parenting
skills that have worked well for countless parents by taking the online
Priceless Parenting class. The
investment you make in improving your parenting is the best investment you'll
ever make!
Kathy,Great article. And I must admit that even though I do not have any children, I am a parent. Sounds strange to some, but to me-they just don't get it that more than a parent has to deal with this: "...trying to stay cool, calm and collected while your child has a meltdown..."Thanks for sharing and Happy Holidays
