There is a quiet despair among so many loving, smart, and deeply caring parents. They so desire to see their children manifest their greatness, to use their intensity well instead of having it go awry, and too often they see their best efforts to inspire respectful and responsible choices slip away to further levels of frustration.
We've all experienced it...the dreaded parenting guilt. You blame yourself whenever you see your child fail or if they are unhappy or struggling. You beat yourself up after you lose your cool when your child misbehaves, you wonder how you have failed your child when they come home with a bad test grade, and you are sure iti is your fault that your child hurt themselves when under your care. There's always something to feel guilty about when you are a parent!
It’s a fact. As your kids grow up, you must grow up, too! If you are the parent of teens, you can’t treat them the way you did when they were eight. As they grow, you have to grow. What worked with a child won’t be effective anymore. The sooner you accept that, the easier adolescence will be on all of you.
You know when you're lecturing. You can see it on your child's face. Or in the eye-rolling. Or in the sigh. But you keep going because now they're being disrespectful and you're going to make your point if it's the last thing you do! He knew what was coming in the first minute, well actually in the first sentence, and he's not interested in hearing any more.
That got your attention, didn't it? The expression "F-bomb" (you know, the "F" word that we write f*#@ in public) is now an official word in the dictionary. It reminds me of a parent who said how upset she would get when her son "dropped the F-bomb". She'd react in such a strong, negative way --which is understandable.
Do you have trouble saying 'no' to your kids? Parents have to set clear expectations, as well as personal boundaries. At a recent "Step In or Step Aside" event, one mom talked about taking her daughter shopping, and going to multiple (more than 5) stores in order to find just the 'right' jacket (style and label). While she was frustrated, and exhausted, it hadn't occurred to her to just say no.
![Help! I Sound Just Like My Mother [EXPERT]](http://images.tangomag.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-full/image_blog/bc_0.jpg "Help! I Sound Just Like My Mother [EXPERT]")
Do you ever hear something roll off your tongue and no sooner than you have spoken the words you think, "OMG! I sound just like my mother!"
When you're "Yes"-ing your kid to death on your way to drop him off at school because he's going on and on about some stupid dinosaur he saw on TV that sang this song and wore this hat and met this friend, you may be wondering if you're a bad mom. You are, but it's totally OK.
7 Ways To Parent Better Teamwork What responsibilities do you and your spouse take on as parents? It’s important to find your style of parenting with teamwork. How do you help each other? Do you have to ask or is it just expected? It’s important to communicate with one another what your strengths are as parents because it will be easier to divide up tasks.
I often work with parents who report that they are struggling with gaining their childs cooperation and that their child doesn't "listen". Usually, when I ask for a specific example what I find out is that it is the parent who was not listening to the child, but not intentionally. Children, particularly younger ones, communicate through their behavior which is often misunderstood by their parents. Let me explain with an example. One weekend our family was out furniture shopping and my then 3 year old daughter needed to go to the restroom.
As a parent of a teen or tween, what could be better than more moments when your child wants to be close enough for a hug and to sit and talk to you? You’ve been told to expect the eye-rolling and attitude and pulling away when they hit the teen years. Yes, it’s normal for this to happen; however, it doesn’t mean it has to be this way, and that you have to suffer through it.
