Parenting

My oldest niece Sara got a lot of books this year for Christmas. Personally I hate reading. After seeing all the books she got, it made me want to start reading. Even though I hate reading, I can read books that relate to where I am in life at that moment. The biggest part of my life right now is being a parent. I have seen several books that gives tips to parents of teenagers. I wanted a book that helped you from birth on up to teen years. I did find some books, but chose to get "The parent You Want to Be: Who You Are Matters More Than What You Do" I am on Chapter 4 right now and all in all it is a good book. It definitely gets you to thinking about who you are as a person as well as a couple, if you are a couple. They wrote this book primarily for couples for obvious reason, but as a single parent you can adapt. One of the most important things apart from teaching her who Jesus is, is making sure Maddy has positive self esteem. They say to "affirm" your child much different than I have been, but it makes total sense. They say when your child does something good, for example, win a field day race...instead of saying, "Wow you're a fast runner", to say things that allow them to make that positive inference...such as "I can tell you worked really hard out there" or ""I can see you gave it your all" It is going to take me some time to reprogram my affirmation skills, but I think it will be worth it in the end.