Feb. '24 Connective Parenting Lessons What Are the Secrets that Make Children Successful? Hello Reader, As parents, we want to raise successful children who reach launch-age fully capable of conducting their own lives with responsibility and respect. This is the time, no matter how young your child is, to focus on the ultimate goal of them having 100% authority over themselves. As your child grows, your job is to slowly and gradually hand over this authority. So the question becomes: How do...

Nov. '23 Connective Parenting Lessons How to Resist the "Toughen Up Trap" Hello Reader, When I hear parents say, “My job is to prepare him to deal with the real world,” I hear a justification for traditional, authoritarian parenting, and I want to counter it to expose the moving parts. Because the family is not the place to train children to be tough so they’re ready for the big, bad world. Living in a family before launching independently into the world, is the place where one’s sense of...

Oct. '23 Connective Parenting Lessons It's Okay To Parent Differently Hello Reader, This month I'd like to discuss how to agree to disagree on the inevitably different parenting styles spouses have, while still connecting with mutual respect for one another. I know of no families where two spouses have exactly the same parenting style. And most are very different. Different parents from different backgrounds will inevitably see things differently. This can be perfectly okay as long as there...