Raising Human Beings

Renowned child psychologist and bestselling author explains how to cultivate a better parent-child relationship while also nurturing empathy, honesty, resilience, and independence. Parents have an important task: figure out who their child is, his or her skills, preferences, beliefs, values, personality traits, goals, and direction, get comfortable with it, and then help them pursue and live a life according to it. Parents also want their kids to be independent, but not if they are going to make bad choices. Good parenting is about striking the balance between a child’s characteristics and a parent’s desire to have influence.  Through this well-known model of solving problems collaboratively, parents can forgo timeout and sticker charts; stop badgering, berating, threatening, and punishing; allow their kids to feel heard and validated; and have influence.