Ask for help
Telling children they are capable is not effective. They must have experiences where they feel capable. 1. Children feel capable, belonging, and significance when they contribute. 2. Look for every opportunity to say, “I need your help.” 3. Be sure to let your children know how much you appreciate their help. Parents don’t realize how much they can damage their children’s character when they do too much for them in the name of being a good parent, and in the name of love. When parents do everything for the child, it is likely that the child will decide, “I’m not capable,” or “Love means getting others to do things for me.” Then parents wonder, “Why does my child act so demanding after all I have done for her?” Alfred Adler taught that the measure of good mental health was the level of , he coined. The word has so much meaning that it is difficult to translate into English, but “social consciousness” and “social interest” come close. Adler believed that mentally...