I read a blog post (Change your Thinking Change Your Parenting by John Rosemond) last week that was posted by one of my Facebook friends. This was a friend I knew from high school because he was my younger brother’s best friend. Seeing a post from him about parenting was a little weird because I can only imagine the grief he caused his own parents…but that’s another story.
The fact is the blog was really good. The author John Rosemond argued that parenting now is different from parenting in the pre-1950s due to the fact parents now want a ‘great relationship’ with their kids and parents back then chose to be leaders and settled for just ‘satisfactory relationships.’ The trade off, the author posits, was necessary back in the day because great relationships “shoot leadership in the foot” and kids need leadership more than a great relationship with their parents.
Nothing I’ve studied ever said a great relationship is necessary for correction or leadership. Correction is only received and acted upon in the context of a good relationship. Leadership is only received and responded to in the context of a good relationship. In fact, a completely equal system (a great relationship) doesn’t allow for leadership at all because once a hierarchy emerges the relationship by definition will no longer be great. But it might still be good.
So maybe having a good relationship with your child and excellent leadership skills is what parenting is all about. The author seems to think so. I’m not sure I agree with the author’s implication that discipline problems and diagnoses such as ADHD would go away if parents changed their thinking and became better leaders, but I believe he gives us parents something to think about.
Archive for October, 2011
Parenting
Friday, October 21st, 2011Rules for Commenting on Blog Posts….
Saturday, October 8th, 2011To do what I do for a living, I must have faith in my client’s ability to help him or herself. To that end I am asking for your help. Your comments to my posts will help your fellow man/woman who may need help today. There are some rules to the game, however.
- Posts that use profanity, vulgarity, mean-spirited comments and general nastiness will not see the light of day (or your computer screen).
- Although I enjoy a good debate/product placement/soap box pontification as much as the next person, those types of comments probably won’t make the cut either.
- Be helpful, be short, and be nice.
- If you are a client and you’d like to post comments telling me how wonderful our services are at achievebalance. org or Ann’s Place, I thank you. Unfortunately because of laws governing confidentiality I can’t post them. Ditto for comments that aren’t so complimentary.
Thanks for joining me. Now, let’s make a difference!
Balance
Friday, October 7th, 2011Achieve Balance Today!
Sounds great, but how?
Welcome to my Blog. I’m Kate Walker and in addition to founding and owning achievebalance.org (https://achievebalance.org) and our new non profit Ann’s Place (http://annsplacetexas.org) I am a licensed professional counselor supervisor and a licensed marriage and family therapist supervisor. Every day I’m going to give you hints and tidbits of information about achieving balance in your relationships, your work, and within yourself. I don’t presume to have all the answers, so I plan to direct you to resources written by experts in the field of health, nutrition, exercise, spirituality, recreation, communication; you name it. My ambitious goal is to be your one-stop-shop for topics related to achieving balance.
To do what I do for a living, I must have faith in my client’s ability to help him or herself. To that end I am asking for your help. Your comments to my posts will help your fellow man/woman who may need help today. There are some rules to the game, however.
• Posts that use profanity, vulgarity, mean-spirited comments and general nastiness will not see the light of day (or your computer screen).
• Although I enjoy a good debate/product placement/soap box pontification as much as the next person, those types of comments probably won’t make the cut either.
• Be helpful, be short, and be nice.
Thanks for joining me. Now, let’s go make a difference!
