Children with Parents Who Work

by Kyanna Sutton

For the first time, someone has asked American kids what they think about working parents. Ellen Galinsky is author of Ask the Children: What America's Children Really Think about Working Parents.

She says parents are always trying to BALANCE which implies if you are giving to one side then you are taking away from the other. She says, "I think "navigating" is a better word for several reasons. Navigating implies that we know we're always in process .. With navigating, there can be good weather and stormy weather, just like parenting.

It's by dealing with the stormy times effectively that we're making the most important contributions as parents (such as teaching our children how to deal with their siblings without warfare). And with navigating, if we know where we want to go, we're more likely to get there." Such a wonderful way of re-wording and way to re-think parenting in general.

The Eight Critical Parenting Skills in survey of children when asked to grade mothers and fathers (from Newsweek 1999)

1. Making the child feel important and loved
   2. Responding to the child's cues and clues
   3. Accepting the child for who he or she is, but expecting success
   4. Promoting strong values
   5. Using constructive discipline
   6. Providing routines and rituals to make life predictable and create positive neural patterns in developing brains
   7. Being involved in the child's education
   8. Being there for the child

A list to go over periodically to remind me what is most important!