from a good book

Cindy and I have been encouraged lately from the book, "Parenting with Love and Logic." Showing empathy and having appropriate consequences is one of their key tools.

When we tell our kids what to do, deep down they say,
I can think for myself," so oftentimes they do the exact opposite of what we want them to do.....
When we intrude into our children's problems with anger or a rescue mission, we make their problems our problems. And children don't worry about problems they know are the concern of their parents. This can be explained pratly by the "No sense in both of us worrying about it' syndrome. (Parenting with Love and Logic, by Jim Fay, p. 53).