As I walked to work I saw a parent who works in the field of education and it wasn't long before we started to talk about parenting. As we travelled she spoke of her role in a local primary school and the work she does with the children she mentors. She expressed with a real passion her commitment to see children inspired to reach their full potential despite the family environments they find themselves in, and communicated something of her frustration at parents whose attitude prevented their children from being the best they can be.
Some parenting prevents development
In some of my experiences working with disaffected children in schools, I found that attempts to re-frame their self perception and world outlook were often undermined by parents who were set in their ways and unresponsive to change. Unfortunately it seemed that some parents were either unaware or unconcerned about how their influence hindered their child's development. Many of these parents refused to partner with the school in our efforts to challenge and change their child's thinking and behaviour, and seemed oblivious to the idea that in doing so they ran the risk of being a limiting factor in their child's progress.
Moments of inspiration
There are times when I seek inspiration and it's hard to find, and then there are moments when inspiration seems to find me. The other morning was one such example.
With this, when she mentioned that she was "keen to put the P back into parenting" I got thinking about some of the P's that are essential to raising our children well. This led to the idea that'd it'd be a useful exercise to highlight some of them for my next few blog posts, allowing space for discussion and thought as to how they apply to us.
So you're aware there may be other articles in between each of the posts in this series, but keep updated as I'd be interested to know what you think about each, and whether you're able to relate to any in your experience as a parent.
Photo: Andrew Michael