We all want to be the best possible parents we can be. But knowing what we want, and having the effective communication skills and knowledge to achieve the lofty parenting goals we often set for ourselves, can be a challenging journey, and on many days, a downright frustrating one.
We promise ourselves we won’t yell, but in spite of our best intentions, yelling is a common parental response to the occasional misdeeds of our children. As parents, we don’t want to admit that we sometimes feel burned out and resentful that we have no time to ourselves. We find it tricky to understand and deal with the ever-changing and complicated feelings our children are experiencing. We frequently wonder about discipline, about punishment and reward, and about what impact these practices might have on our children’s feelings of self-worth. At times we doubt that life lessons can be taught when our children challenge us with their inappropriate behavior — let alone that punishments can be avoided — and we question whether we have what it takes to be a good parent and to build strong and lasting relationships with our children.
While we genuinely may want to make changes in our lives and to do the right thing, we’re often uncertain about which path to take, as if holding a map with a destination clearly marked, but with no directions on how to get there. Family education can help with this journey. It can give willing parents the knowledge and skills they need to successfully navigate the unexpected encounters and detours that inevitably come up along the way. By helping parents grow in confidence, family education can effectively guide them to their ultimate destination of becoming the best parents they can be, and at the same time, assist them in building strong, lasting relationships with their most important traveling companions, their children.
The more we learn about what it means to truly be a family — including the fact that all healthy families experience stress and problems, that mistakes made during the growing up years should be appreciated as opportunities to bring family members closer together and to teach, rather than to shame and punish, and that each individual is in control of himself and no one else — the sooner we’ll be able to carve out a path to healthier, happier and stronger relationships with the ones we love.
"When your child is on his own, your only control over him is the strength of your relationship."
While we genuinely may want to make changes in our lives and to do the right thing, we’re often uncertain about which path to take, as if holding a map with a destination clearly marked, but with no directions on how to get there. Family education can help with this journey. It can give willing parents the knowledge and skills they need to successfully navigate the unexpected encounters and detours that inevitably come up along the way. By helping parents grow in confidence, family education can effectively guide them to their ultimate destination of becoming the best parents they can be, and at the same time, assist them in building strong, lasting relationships with their most important traveling companions, their children.
The more we learn about what it means to truly be a family — including the fact that all healthy families experience stress and problems, that mistakes made during the growing up years should be appreciated as opportunities to bring family members closer together and to teach, rather than to shame and punish, and that each individual is in control of himself and no one else — the sooner we’ll be able to carve out a path to healthier, happier and stronger relationships with the ones we love.
"When your child is on his own, your only control over him is the strength of your relationship."
- William Glasser, M.D.