Mishmash

 For the final edition on good parenting tips for parents who want to be THE BEST!  I am going to speak on Emotional Coaching, which was made famous by a renowned psychologist Dr Gottman. . Please watch and learn from Dr Gottman in this interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsDTT3xgjo . It is very difficult to control our natural emotions. We are going to get angry. We are going to get frustrated. We are going to want to lash out. BUT we cannot and must not do this. We have nine months to try and prepare ourselves for this new little being, who will come in and add to our earthly experience. Use that time well. We have a lifetime to raise them in love and kindness. Make a conscious decision on how you are going to parent. If you are fortunate enough to be in a loving marriage, sit and discuss with your partner the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts. Be prepared for the shifting sands of a maturing person and know you need to adjust as they grow. If you are on your ow...

  How to spare the rod and NOT spoil the child. I want to share a story with you which was told by Astrid Lingren, the Swedish author of Piepie Longstocking. This was in the '70s when hitting a child was the norm in her home country, but she had been told by a pastor's wife, to never spank her child. Her son had reached four-years-old, and until this stage, she had never felt he had behaved so badly she needed to spank him.  But, on this occasion, he had pushed too far, and it was time. As was the practice in those days, you sent the child out to find a switch (a piece of a branch).  He was gone for a very long time, and she had begun to wonder where he was when he came into the room with tears rolling down his face and his arm outstretched with a rock in it, and he said to her, "Mama, I couldn't find a switch, but here is a rock you can throw at me." She understood from a child's point of view: "If my mother wants to hurt me, then it makes no difference ...

 Can you learn to be a great parent? Many would argue NO, because the parent style you were reared with, will become your dominant style, no matter what you try and do to change it! BUT many of the experts will answer YES! If you want to do something and change the way you behave- You absolutely can do it! In America, they have a wonderful system called the NEPEM system. This is the National Extension Parent Educational Model. This has been developed to educate parents to become successful in raising well-developed, emotionally secure children. They have this to say about nurturing: "To Nurture children may be the most important contribution parents can offer their children. Nurturing by parents predicts that a child will develop into a competent and healthy adult. Nurturing can be challenging because a family’s emotional resources often are overextended. Children also have different needs and different preferences for nurturing behaviour. By learning to attend to their children’s...