A Few Lessons on Parenting

I'm currently reading through "The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read" (not an affiliate link) by Philippa Perry.

There's a couple of important lessons I want to capture to make sure I don't forget them.

1. Always soothe your child. They will eventually learn to soothe themselves if you do this.
2. Always acknowledge your child's feelings. This is the beginning of how they learn to regulate their emotions. Trying to cajole your child into feeling differently than how they feel is how tantrums escalate.
3. Always having the right answers is not realistic, and unnecessary.
4. Avoiding making mistakes as a parent is also not realistic, and also unnecessary. What is important is how you repair the damage done. Always own your mistakes and apologize for them.
5. Children will begin to model all of your behaviors, even the complex ones. They will learn to own their mistsakes and apologize for them.

There's also a really great quote in the book about art:

The human trait that stretches back throughout history, of expression through telling stories, through making art, is a way of taking ownership of the things that scare us, because the more express ourselves about these things, gradually, the less scary they become.

-Kairos Anamnesis

Comments? Send me an email! kairosanamnesis@gmail.com