Page 12 - The Intentional Parent

Inevitably parenting criticisms are directed at you when your child ignores authority and you get called up to school for a good talking to. Is that really the way it works. Your kid misbehaves and you get in trouble? Then the guilt comes; or worse yet you might assume the teacher or other significant adult does not really understand your child, or that your child deserves a break at home given the pressure and stress of other environments. Good work habits, respect for others, and self-control all “follow the leader”, and that leader should be you. Are there times when the people around your child are unfair and you need to advocate for them? Of course. But when you see it happening over and over you need to face reality.
Parents As “Friends”
I have often found it quite ineffective and difficult to try to persuade parents to be more strict, expect more from their kids, stick to the consequences they lay out, and incentivize kids without giving them too much “up front,” or without them earning it.
Sometimes, parents tell me, “I don’t want my kids to feel the way I did when I was growing up.” When parents tell me they don’t want to feel the way they did growing up I answer back, “How do you know your kids won’t feel worse because you were too much of a friend and not the kind of ‘parent’ they wish you were?” Kids rarely stay close to their childhood friends, but you are a parent forever.
Curiously, when I ask parents if they would like to learn to be better “leaders,” and to be able to teach their children the importance of being “successful leaders,” almost everyone wants to sign up for that and guide their children through all sorts of
The Intentional Parent by Peter J. Favaro, Ph.D. 12