Family Matters

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it myself
– Joyce Maynard

Parenting (especially teenage parenting) is undoubtedly the most challenging adventure in a person's life. Remember the first hours of being a mother or a father? The unconditional love you had for this tiny new creature that did nothing but eat, sleep and cry, coupled with the enormous load of the new responsibility, from which there was no escape. A bit overwhelming, wasn't it? For some parents, even a bit scary sometimes. Who can you turn to for parenting advice?

For many, parenting is one of the most fulfilling feelings during their life. Mothers and fathers compromise many of their career opportunities to give their kids what they perceive as happiness, comfort and love. Somehow, parenting is the most responsible thing most of us do in our life, yet we are doomed to experiment every day of our kids' life, through trial and error, to find the formula for great parenting.

Parents have existed from the beginning of humanity, but many parents still feel they must reinvent the wheel over and over again and count on some mysterious instincts they are supposed to have when dealing with their kids.

Many parents have difficulties balancing their time between their jobs, their partner and their children. They also struggle to make whatever resources they have meet their kids' needs. This situation is reflected by their Kids' behavior and state of mind, often causing unhappiness, frustration and self doubt. Teenage kids make parenting an even bigger challenge.

Big systems cater for children. As an educator, even I started my work with children, but shortly after starting, I realized that looking only after the kids is missing an important part of kid's learning and developing, maybe the most important part - their parents. A more holistic approach should be providing support for the kids and their key human influences.

Parenting is important to us as a society. We need to invest in parents to make this world a better place for parents and for their kids, because happy parents raise happy kids.

Check out "Happy Parents Raise Happy Kids", the Be Happy in LIFE Better Parenting Skills Program.

You may want to read

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• Teen Birthday Parties – Who Needs Them Anyway?
• What Are You Saying to Your Teens?