Archives for August 2007

Reaching Our for Support Do you get enough support? No? I didn't think so! Most parents don't. We may refuse to admit to ourselves that we even need it, or we may know we need it, but are embarrassed to ask for it. We might not believe we deserve any help, or we might feel there's nobody out there willing or able to support us. Another obstacle to reaching out is … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Reaching Out

Focusing on Relationship to Ease Power Struggles with Your Child When my daughter was just starting kindergarten, we had big battles over getting dressed. She would whine, "I can't get dressed by myself, you have to help me." I knew perfectly well she could get dressed on her own - she had been doing it for months - so I found this very aggravating. But guess who always wins … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Connection

How to End the Blame Game Most parents struggle with feeling inadequate or incompetent. One key talent of parenthood is letting go of self-criticism and self-blame. How have you nurtured acceptance of yourself, acknowledgment that you've always done the best you could - even if you wanted to do better? A few years back, my friend Helen asked me if I would teach a class … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Self-Acceptance

Untitled Document Resolution As parents, we must resolve our own childhood traumas, losses and unmet needs in order to meet the needs of our children. Every person alive has experienced some form of loss; it's just part of the human condition. We may have lost a parent or a sibling, or lost our sense of safety because of being abused or neglected as a child. We … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Resolution

Understanding and Empathy If we look under the surface of our children's behavior, at how they might be feeling, we are often in a better position to get things back on track. How have you nurtured that talent of looking deep inside, understanding where a child's behavior is coming from and seeing the pain behind the problems? When our children have been "bad," it's hard for … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Understanding and Empathy