This week has been very difficult for many of us in the aftermath of tragic political events in Europe.
Please take a moment to appreciate the Peace around you, and also to make a promise to be kinder to yourself and others.
Today I want to ask you:
Are you parenting for the 21-st century?
Is your parenting preparing your child for the future, or does it hold them in the past?
I meet many parents who are frozen in the past in many ways. They push their kids to:
- follow all rules without permission to question the rules
- have A’s and B’s and get Honor Roll every quarter (*see Facebook flooded with such photos!)
- obey parents based on top-down authority (*big confusion here with Respect!)
- memorize facts for tests
- do well in standardized tests
- be good at most subjects, if not all
- be neat and maintain order at the cost of creativity and spontaneity
Studies show that Humans who will thrive in an uber-technologically- advanced world in the next 10-50 years, are not your typical A students in today’s schools. There are many reasons for that, too many to cover here. For now, let’s look at the qualities we need to instill and cultivate in our children today, so they can thrive tomorrow:
- MENTAL RESILIENCE
- FOCUS
- ADAPTABILITY
- SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS + EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
We can cultivate these traits in our children – here’s how:
- being consistent with our limits, while allowing for big emotions to come up
- listening without shaming or interrupting
- coaching when social relationships get confusing (coaching means guiding, not forcing)
- being role-models ourselves for these qualities
- reducing screen time on all devices, TV included
- delaying gratification
- coaching for mental focus, using breathing, mindfulness, slowing down
- ensuring abundant sleep time every night
- embracing failures as lessons (*we must model this attitude very well)
- allowing for flow and creativity despite it being messy and chaotic.
If you need support parenting for the 21st century, contact me so you can get the support you need. Don’t do this work alone. We all need a village.
