Parenting

She's not my baby but she looks close enough.

We talked all over the place this week but the topic was parenting. I really think the reason why we talked all over the place is because parenting has so much to do with who you become and how you parent. Our teacher gave a presentation that talked about the different reasons people do what they do and why. I found it incredibly interesting so I'm going to attach my notes. The first bullet talks about what causes the behavior; the second is the type of approach; and the third describes the actions involved in those approaches.

• Contact and Belonging
• Mistake Approach
• Undue attention seeking
• Positive Approach
• Parents need to offer it freely
• Look for opportunity being good
• Teach the child to learn how to contribute
• Helping at home
• You have to allow them to help when it is inconvenient for them to help when you really need them to help
• Thank you and a touch is way more valuable then a treat or a dollar
• You have to do it with them for them to want to do it

• Power Over Self, Environment
• Mistake Approach
• Rebellion
• Controlling others
• Positive Approach
• Responsibility
• Choices
• Age and Situation appropriate choices
• Consequences

• Protection (physical and emotional dangers)
• Mistaken Approach
• Revenge
• Positive Approach
• Assertiveness (tolerate attempts at assertiveness)
• Forgiveness (the people who hurt us the most are probably the people we love the most).

• Withdrawal (a break)
• Mistaken Approach
• Undue avoidance
• Positive Approach
• Positive time out

But besides these points my teacher gave us this quote that totally makes sense and is applicable to almost every situation in life and it is:

You can never get enough of what you don't need because what you do not need cannot satisfy you.

Think about it and it will begin to make sense to you... Well guys again I ask for your input to parenting. Where do you think you'll end up with your kids? How much do you think your parenting effects your kids?