Family Wellness

 

Were you given a parenting handbook on how to raise healthy children?

No...

Like most of us you are trying to parent in a world that is telling you what parenting should look like everyday. This can be hard if you have teenagers. Finding the balance of positive parenting and boundaries might feel like you walking on a tight rope and any moment you are going to fall flat on your face. This can strain your relationships with the children.

Why is parenting so hard?

Parents are human too and it's something we tend to forget. Like many human beings they come with childhood traumas that affect the way they relate and parent their own children. We don't parent in isolation but are led by our own childhood experiences and relationships we had with our parents.

Most of us are trying to parent differently from our parents that we end up repeating the same parenting patterns. We haven't healed from our mother and father wounds. Our younger selves still yearn for the things we didn't receive from our parents.This can be confusing for children especially teenagers who may trigger parents' childhood wounds through acts of rejection or rebellion.

It's our responsibility as parents to become aware of our childhood wounds and heal them. The parent relationship is the foundation of attachment for children. When we neglect children emotionally or cause them trauma, we affect they way they form bonds with others later on in life.

We can break the generation trauma cycles by creating a safe space for mental and emotional wellness in our homes. Children will only be vulnerable when they feel safe. Encouraging feedback about our behaviours helps us minimize the  negative impact it has on them.

We can love one another through exercising more compassion and understanding in our homes.