Читать книгу Raising Able - Susan Tordella - Страница 18

Some parents in my workshops protest when I suggest a different approach, saying “That’s not me. I feel fake.”

You may feel phony at first. That’s expected. New habits take time to practice and internalize. View it as a long term experiment to create new habits, and have patience. Mark Twain said, “It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it 100 times.”

Quitting smoking, going on a diet and learning new parenting skills require a commitment to develop new responses to whatever triggers you to smoke, overeat, or revert to old ways of dealing with your children.

To succeed at new parenting practices, make a commitment to become more conscious to replace old habits with new behaviors.

Start with small achievable goals. Think back to when you started a new job. You allowed yourself to be a beginner for three to six months and to get acclimated to new routines.

The same can be said for adopting a new parenting approach, with ambitious goals: to create a democratic family environment and develop teenagers who will make good independent decisions.