By: Dana Thomas, Ed.S, CPDCE, CPDPE
Have you ever wondered how many decisions we, as parents, make in a day? How much time do you think we, as parents, spend making each decision and answering each question? I don’t have the statistics, but I do know that the questions from children and the responses from parents constitute a “rapid fire” environment.
In the spirit of this “rapid-fire” environment, spend 60 seconds listing the challenges that you have with your children. It’s just one minute, take the time. It will be worth it.
Behaviors that often make the list are: whining, complaining, not listening and sibling fighting – along with ten or fifteen more challenges and areas of concern. For most parents, it is not difficult to create that list in a short amount of time.
For the next list, take a deep breathe, and fast forward twenty or thirty years. Visualize your child as an adult and living on their own. They have come home to visit for a family holiday. They are happy, well adjusted, contributing members of society. They want to come home and you are happy to see them. Spend a minute or two writing down the characteristics of your adult child.
Characteristics that often make the list are: kind, generous, confident and empathetic – along with ten or fifteen additional qualities that would make any parents’ heart feel warm and satisfied.
Now, here is the challenge for us as parents. Is the way that we are handling the challenges with our children now, going to create the adults we want our children to be? Is our style of quick questions and even quicker answers going to provide the tools that our children need to become the adults we know they can be?
This Positive Discipline activity encourages us to slow down and reflect – are we being the parents we want to be? Are we teaching our children what they need to know in order to be successful adults?
The Positive Discipline Workshop, Pieces to the Puzzle: Helping Parents and Children Fit Together, will give parents tools to address current challenges in such a way as to promote the development of the successful adult we would like our children to become.
Pieces to the Puzzle: Helping Parents and Children Fit Together
Centered Therapy Chicago
May 17, 2016 from 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Registration Required: Contact Dana Thomas at Dthomas.firstname.lastname@example.org