Monday, December 13, 2010

How To Be The Parent I Want To Be?

So, I've been feeling for a while that I'm going about this parenting thing all wrong, but I don't know what to do about it. My dilemma is this: I want to parent all touchy-feely, taking my son's feelings into consideration, including him in solutions to our problems, making him feel like a valued and important part of our family. Instead, I'm treating him like I'm trying to break a wild horse.

I know compliance is important. It's not ok for my DS to run off, like he did at the zoo last week when he made it most of the way to the trains before I found him. He needs to know to stop when I tell him to stop, to stay with me, to follow directions. But I hate that the way to get him to do things is to punish. On the other hand, no punishing, no following rules. I don't feel like any of my discussions have any effect.

I'm going to muse on this some more. If there's anyone out there with an idea, please let me know!

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