Parenting

My husband's sons are with us this weekend. I absolutely adore my step-sons. They are my pride and joy!

So, to dig a little deeper into the religion subject, what do parents do to help or hurt their children and society as a whole? In a general sense, parenting could be considered a combination of love and discipline - and I don't mean punishment.

I see my husband torn because he can't be a full-time daddy. Divorce does that to a family. This creates a whole different spin on love and discipline. I have seen the difficulty Joe has trying to be a loving father every day, while only seeing his kids every other weekend and a few hours a day during the week. Then when he has to try to train them in matters of behavior, which sometimes includes punishment, but he has limited time to show them how much he loves them, he feels guilty because they are not happy when they are disciplined.


Some things parents can do to help children:

- say, "I love you"
- give hugs and kisses
- give gifts
- tell them how proud you are of them
- help them with a difficult task
- train and require listening skills
- train and require following directions
- help with social skills
- help overcoming fears
- consistency in all things, including choice of disciplinary technique
- teaching about healthy eating and exercise

Some things parents can do to harm children:

- any type of abuse
- inconsistency
- degrading comments
- yelling
- refusal to touch
- getting drunk/high in front of them
- smoking in the house/room
- not dealing with your own emotional problems
- mind games - guilt manipulation, bad kid/good kid
- blaming
- not feeding healthy meals and snacks on a regular basis

Parents have the opportunity of a lifetime to help the next generation succeed and be prosperous in all areas. I have seen some take this opportunity as something precious and important. Their children often become leaders and truly intelligent adults who can make good decisions and fix bad decisions and can be another set of good parents for the generation after them. I have seen others take this opportunity for granted or see it is a curse. Their children often become followers of whatever makes them feel good because their parents did not leave them with the skills and emotional independence they needed to become prosperous and good citizens/leaders. Not everyone follows this generality. Not everyone is meant to be a leader. Not everyone has the same IQ or ability to make decisions. But everyone has the opportunity to do their best where ever they are. Parents can help their children become their best.