By Sarah Chana Radcliffe
Here's why YOUR child will be able to withstand the challenge of great challenges...
Parents who weren't properly supported by their own parents, tend to worry that their children will be overwhelmed with any pain they experience. However, today's parents tend to know how to support their kids through pain - they know how to name, validate and accept feelings. This means that their children will NOT feel the overwhelm and trauma of emotional pain because that overwhelm and trauma comes specifically from being alone with it in childhood. And this means that parents can allow their children to struggle without needing to desperately rescue them from that struggle; they can actually support the failures and frustrations that come along with great accomplishments. They can help their children gain the confidence that comes with overcoming.
Sometimes parents wonder where they went wrong...why their child is so difficult...
You're loving, patient, kind and reasonable - and your child is out of control, negative, aggressive or otherwise challenging to be and challenging to be with. It's not your fault or his; something is going on within the dance between his genes and his environment (i.e. his genes and his diet or his genes and his lifestyle). Keep experimenting with your parenting interventions and also consider a visit to your local integrative practitioner - sometimes answers come from unexpected places.
