Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #823 The Downside to Gentle Parenting
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
- 0:07Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Now, it's about saying that you have to be so
- 0:12Speaker 2: well regulated yourself when your children have big emotions that
- 0:15Speaker 2: you can hold together, not catch their cranky, not catch
- 0:18Speaker 2: their chaos, not to catch their crazy, just try to
- 0:20Speaker 2: help them catch your car.
- 0:22Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mom
- 0:25Speaker 1: and dad.
- 0:26Speaker 2: So I'm in the shops the other day trying to
- 0:28Speaker 2: find one of our children who is not where she
- 0:30Speaker 2: told me she would be at the time that she
- 0:31Speaker 2: told me that she would be there. But she doesn't
- 0:34Speaker 2: have a SIM card in her phone because she can't
- 0:36Speaker 2: pay for a phone, so therefore she doesn't have one.
- 0:38Speaker 2: She just has one that she uses at home now
- 0:40Speaker 2: and then, so I can't contact her. Apart from that,
- 0:42Speaker 2: because I know I can't contact her, I don't have
- 0:44Speaker 2: my phone anyway, so I can't contact anyone about anything.
- 0:47Speaker 2: And I'm feeling lost, and I'm starting to get angry, No,
- 0:51Speaker 2: not angry, just feeling discomfort and feeling a little bit annoyed.
- 0:55Speaker 2: I've been waiting for ten minutes she hasn't shown up.
- 0:58Speaker 2: And this man walks over to me wearing a beard.
- 1:03Speaker 2: Wearing a beard, Well, that's what you do, you wear
- 1:05Speaker 2: a beard. You don't know he's bearded wearing glasses, and
- 1:10Speaker 2: he says Justin Coulson, and I said, yeah, yeah, that's me.
- 1:15Speaker 2: And I'm still looking worried, and I'm looking past him
- 1:17Speaker 2: and over his shoulder and around the corner, trying to
- 1:19Speaker 2: find this daughter of ours who's not showing up. And
- 1:22Speaker 2: he says, Oh, my name's Ian. I just want to
- 1:24Speaker 2: let you know what a difference she've made in our
- 1:26Speaker 2: families lives. Like my wife, she's just over here with
- 1:29Speaker 2: my mother in law and our baby, and what a
- 1:33Speaker 2: difference they've got like three or four year old. And
- 1:36Speaker 2: he's just being so kind to me about how I've helped,
- 1:40Speaker 2: and I'm looking at him going, just don't follow me
- 1:44Speaker 2: right now, because I've got a cranky look on my
- 1:45Speaker 2: face because i have a daughter who's not here, and
- 1:46Speaker 2: I'm feeling a little bit stressed right now. And he said, well,
- 1:49Speaker 2: you've taught us how to be gentle parents, and I'm
- 1:51Speaker 2: sure that you'll be gentle when you find her. And
- 1:53Speaker 2: I was. I was very gentle when she finally showed up.
- 1:55Speaker 2: Twenty minutes late, but he got me thinking. I said
- 2:00Speaker 2: that I'd taught him all about gentle parenting, and that's
- 2:02Speaker 2: not something that I really promote. It's not something that
- 2:05Speaker 2: I talk about. I don't argue in any way, shape
- 2:07Speaker 2: or form that I'm a gentle parenting advocate, because I'm
- 2:13Speaker 2: all about well in the paring revolution, I'm all about
- 2:17Speaker 2: the need supportive parenting style that I've written about at length.
- 2:22Speaker 2: But it got me thinking gentle parenting is really everywhere,
- 2:25Speaker 2: and there's an awful lot in common with what I
- 2:28Speaker 2: share and what gentle parenting seems to be. But while
- 2:32Speaker 2: I was thinking about that, I was doing some googling
- 2:34Speaker 2: and found an article that was in the Sinning Morning
- 2:36Speaker 2: Herald a couple of months ago from Samantha Selena Morris,
- 2:41Speaker 2: the host of that Please Explain podcast, and Samantha basically
- 2:45Speaker 2: said gentle parenting is making kids helpless, which made me think,
- 2:50Speaker 2: I wonder what other criticisms there are of gentle parenting
- 2:52Speaker 2: out there. I'm a critic at times of some elements
- 2:56Speaker 2: of gentle parenting, and so Kylie. I've done some research,
- 2:59Speaker 2: well not the real true academic research, but I've done
- 3:02Speaker 2: some googling I've done some googling. Here are the criticisms
- 3:07Speaker 2: of gentle parenting, and I thought we could talk about
- 3:09Speaker 2: them and then describe whether the criticisms are valid or invalid,
- 3:14Speaker 2: and what we can do in our parenting to be
- 3:17Speaker 2: better regardless of what we want to call our parenting style.
- 3:21Speaker 3: How many criticisms do you have?
- 3:24Speaker 2: I came up with five, five as I was looking
- 3:26Speaker 2: around and trying to find ideas. Five criticisms of gentle parenting.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Okay, what are you five?
- 3:30Speaker 2: Number one people accuse gentle parents of being permissive. The
- 3:35Speaker 2: kids can get away with anything, no limits, no boundaries.
- 3:38Speaker 2: All that matters is the kid's emotions. And if the
- 3:40Speaker 2: kids are having a hard time, that's okay. You just
- 3:41Speaker 2: don't let them do anything. You see, Bill, those big,
- 3:43Speaker 2: horrible negative emotions.
- 3:45Speaker 3: Will you see this really play out in young kids specifically, well, yes,
- 3:49Speaker 3: gentle parenting, Yes, big emotions. They've stolen a toy and
- 3:53Speaker 3: mom and dad, you know, coddle.
- 3:55Speaker 2: Them and got to come in and fix everything up.
- 3:58Speaker 2: We also saw it in parental Guidance when it was
- 4:00Speaker 2: time for the photo shoot, the family photo shoot. It
- 4:03Speaker 2: was literally in episode one and our gentle parents, they
- 4:06Speaker 2: had a particularly tough time. I'm just going to come
- 4:08Speaker 2: sit with you. Okay, he.
- 4:13Speaker 3: What is it?
- 4:14Speaker 2: They don't know?
- 4:15Speaker 3: We're not going to be.
- 4:15Speaker 2: Hitting your children. To me, showed zero respect for you.
- 4:20Speaker 2: You've picked up one of your children and they smacked you.
- 4:22Speaker 2: How do you deal with your kids smacking you? I
- 4:24Speaker 2: see no respect.
- 4:25Speaker 3: I see no discipline.
- 4:27Speaker 1: Mate.
- 4:28Speaker 3: If any of my kids struck at me, that's not okay.
- 4:32Speaker 2: So that's the first criticism that seems to come from
- 4:35Speaker 2: people who are unhappy with the whole gentle parenting thing.
- 4:37Speaker 2: It's just lets the kids get away with whatever they want.
- 4:40Speaker 2: What's number two, it's not gentle on parents. And what
- 4:44Speaker 2: I mean by that is to be a quote unquote
- 4:47Speaker 2: gentle parent, or if we extended into any of the
- 4:50Speaker 2: more child oriented parenting styles, it means that it takes
- 4:55Speaker 2: a lot. It takes a big toll on us. It
- 4:59Speaker 2: is harder to parent like that for us, especially in
- 5:03Speaker 2: the short term, that it is to be more authoritarian.
- 5:09Speaker 3: Okay, Well, I'm just going to put it out there
- 5:11Speaker 3: that if you were looking for gentle in your life,
- 5:14Speaker 3: that becoming a parent probably was not the right thing.
- 5:18Speaker 2: But you don't know that before. You just see these
- 5:21Speaker 2: little angels being cuddled by their mummies and think, oh,
- 5:23Speaker 2: I want to hold that baby. I want to do
- 5:25Speaker 2: that as well.
- 5:26Speaker 3: Parenting in general is not gentle.
- 5:28Speaker 2: To gladiate a sport. Isn't it so hard? Tough enough?
- 5:31Speaker 2: Is that what you're saying.
- 5:32Speaker 3: I'm not saying tough enough. I'm just acknowledging that, regardless
- 5:36Speaker 3: of what style you go with, parenting is not gentle
- 5:40Speaker 3: on us. It is hard because it puts a mirror
- 5:43Speaker 3: up to ourselves in all the things that we wish
- 5:49Speaker 3: we weren't.
- 5:50Speaker 2: I guess the criticism really is or where we lack.
- 5:54Speaker 2: It's about saying that you have to be so well
- 5:56Speaker 2: regulated yourself, no matter how hungry or angry or lonely,
- 5:59Speaker 2: a tired, or stressed you are, you have to be
- 6:01Speaker 2: so well regulated yourself when your children have big emotions
- 6:05Speaker 2: that you can hold it together. Not catch their cranky,
- 6:07Speaker 2: not catch their chaos, not to catch their crazy, just
- 6:10Speaker 2: try to help them catch your calm.
- 6:12Speaker 3: I get that, but I also think it's important for
- 6:14Speaker 3: us kids to recognize that we don't keep our calm
- 6:17Speaker 3: all the time.
- 6:17Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm gonna talk about that in a sec and.
- 6:19Speaker 3: How we deal with the repair at the other end.
- 6:22Speaker 2: Yeah, great stuff, that's important. It is, it is absolutely
- 6:25Speaker 2: Number three. Quite often kids don't know what they're feeling,
- 6:29Speaker 2: and so therefore the criticism is why you're spending all
- 6:31Speaker 2: this time on feelings with kids who don't know what
- 6:33Speaker 2: feelings are and don't know what they're feeling.
- 6:35Speaker 3: Number four the.
- 6:37Speaker 2: Next criticism that I found as I googled, and I
- 6:40Speaker 2: really actually resonated with this one. I mean, I have
- 6:44Speaker 2: some pretty strong arguments against several of the criticisms that
- 6:48Speaker 2: we've heard, but this one. Empathy for your child often
- 6:54Speaker 2: demonstrates a lack of empathy for the people around you.
- 6:58Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to dissecting that one a little. What's
- 7:00Speaker 3: number five?
- 7:01Speaker 2: So this was the headline of the Sydney Morning Herald
- 7:04Speaker 2: article that got me perplexed about this following my conversation
- 7:07Speaker 2: with Ian, and it was that if you're a gentle parent,
- 7:11Speaker 2: that you're raising your children to be helpless. Now I
- 7:15Speaker 2: read Sam's article and she actually got it wrong. She
- 7:18Speaker 2: was really talking more about helicopter parenting than gentle parenting.
- 7:21Speaker 2: She conflated the two. But I think it's worth spending
- 7:24Speaker 2: just a minute or two on each of these criticisms
- 7:26Speaker 2: of gentle parenting. Not that I'm an apologist for gentle parents,
- 7:29Speaker 2: not that I'm here to advocate for gentle parenting, but
- 7:32Speaker 2: just to emphasize how important it is that we recognize
- 7:35Speaker 2: the good and the bad and that we get this
- 7:37Speaker 2: stuff right because so much of it actually does tie
- 7:39Speaker 2: in with what need. Supportive parenting is the stuff that
- 7:42Speaker 2: I talk about because it is a very nice way
- 7:45Speaker 2: to raise your kids.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Well, if we go back to number one, we got permissiveness.
- 7:50Speaker 3: Can I just put it out there that you could
- 7:52Speaker 3: be any number of parenting styles and still have a
- 7:55Speaker 3: permissive attitude towards certain.
- 7:57Speaker 2: Things totally like free range parents unquestionably are oriented in
- 8:02Speaker 2: that direction. It really is, It really is a thing.
- 8:05Speaker 2: But if you think that permissive is part of gentle parenting,
- 8:08Speaker 2: then you just don't understand what that parenting style is about.
- 8:12Speaker 2: What gentle parents do is they work on the emotional
- 8:15Speaker 2: state of their children and help them to get equilibrium
- 8:19Speaker 2: and balance, and then they do the problem solving the limits,
- 8:21Speaker 2: setting the boundary discussions, and make sure that the kids
- 8:25Speaker 2: get what's expected and what's not So for people who
- 8:28Speaker 2: are saying gentle parents don't have any limits or boundaries.
- 8:31Speaker 2: They're permissive. That just comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding
- 8:34Speaker 2: of what gentle parenting is.
- 8:36Speaker 3: Number two was an acknowledgment that gentle parenting isn't gentle
- 8:41Speaker 3: on our parents, especially our mums.
- 8:44Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that this is actually a reasonable criticism.
- 8:47Speaker 2: We have got to be all things to all people
- 8:49Speaker 2: all the time, and it's hard to be balanced. It's
- 8:52Speaker 2: hard to be calm, especially when you've got way too
- 8:55Speaker 2: much going on, not nearly enough time to get it
- 8:57Speaker 2: all done, no money to pay for it all, and
- 8:59Speaker 2: it's all feeling. Oh and you've got three kids who
- 9:01Speaker 2: are having a big screaming banshee fight, meltdown, chaos, craziness
- 9:06Speaker 2: thing happening in the next room.
- 9:08Speaker 3: So can I ask a question? Yeap, Is it any
- 9:11Speaker 3: easier to be angry all the time?
- 9:14Speaker 2: No, it's not. That's really important, And I was going
- 9:16Speaker 2: to contradict myself a little bit just before you ask
- 9:18Speaker 2: the question and say that the alternative is no better.
- 9:23Speaker 2: And in fact, if we can be gentle to the kids,
- 9:27Speaker 2: if we can work with them on their emotional state,
- 9:30Speaker 2: what we're typically going to do is build up our
- 9:33Speaker 2: children's and our own emotional intelligence and therefore our emotional resilience,
- 9:38Speaker 2: and over time we will get better at it and
- 9:41Speaker 2: it will be gentle. Honest, I think that that criticism
- 9:45Speaker 2: is completely unwarranted. But I also think it's important that
- 9:48Speaker 2: we get real with ourselves and every now and again
- 9:50Speaker 2: just acknowledge the reality of humanity, which is that sometimes
- 9:55Speaker 2: this stuff is hard, and sometimes we're going to get
- 9:57Speaker 2: it wrong, and sometimes everyone is just having a big
- 9:58Speaker 2: emotional moment and a dummy toys out of the court,
- 10:01Speaker 2: take my bat and ball going home. Sometimes life is
- 10:03Speaker 2: like that as well.
- 10:07Speaker 3: If our kids don't see a full range of emotions,
- 10:11Speaker 3: then they actually don't have any reference point to deal
- 10:15Speaker 3: with it when they see it down in the big world.
- 10:18Speaker 3: If we live in this little utopia bubble, and I
- 10:22Speaker 3: don't know anyone who does, but if we live there,
- 10:27Speaker 3: the first time our kids come up against somebody who
- 10:32Speaker 3: is really angry, that will shake them.
- 10:34Speaker 2: To the core. I want to extend what you've just
- 10:37Speaker 2: said a little bit and highlight it's not just you
- 10:39Speaker 2: said the full range of emotions, but your conversation has
- 10:42Speaker 2: focused on being frustrated and angry. What our children really
- 10:46Speaker 2: need to be exposed to is an expansive emotional vocabulary,
- 10:51Speaker 2: because your emotional world can only only be as big
- 10:54Speaker 2: as the words you have to describe it. Yeah, And
- 10:56Speaker 2: so our job really is to sit with our children
- 10:59Speaker 2: and say, what does it feel like now, calm, contented
- 11:03Speaker 2: or maybe pensive. Start to expand their emotional vocabulary. Let
- 11:09Speaker 2: them know that they can be a gas, they can
- 11:11Speaker 2: be enraged, they can be depressed, they can be sedentary
- 11:17Speaker 2: or sedate.
- 11:18Speaker 3: Like maybe when they say they're happy, you know.
- 11:22Speaker 2: Yeah, what is happy?
- 11:23Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, the other day you were happy when the
- 11:25Speaker 3: puppy you know, did a trick at the beach or whatever,
- 11:27Speaker 3: and today you're happy because of this? Like, how does
- 11:30Speaker 3: today feel different to the other day.
- 11:32Speaker 2: It's kind of like I love ice cream and I
- 11:34Speaker 2: love mum. Well, what's the difference between loving ice cream
- 11:37Speaker 2: and loving mom? Yeah?
- 11:37Speaker 3: And so maybe the other day what you are actually
- 11:39Speaker 3: feeling and giving them options there and today might not
- 11:43Speaker 3: even be happy. Maybe today is and giving them added
- 11:47Speaker 3: emotions to play with, right to sit with.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess that's and this kind of ties
- 11:52Speaker 2: in with our next one as well, and that is
- 11:54Speaker 2: that they don't know what they're feeling when we expand
- 11:57Speaker 2: emotional vocabularies, we expand emotional range and emotional experience, we
- 12:02Speaker 2: build emotional intelligence, and ironically, we start to learn what
- 12:07Speaker 2: we're feeling. So people who will say I'll stop being
- 12:10Speaker 2: a gentle parent, this isn't working. This is ridiculous. Your
- 12:14Speaker 2: children don't know it. Well, how are they going to
- 12:16Speaker 2: know it unless you do this with them. The emotion coaching,
- 12:19Speaker 2: the emotional conversations are really important. But I love this.
- 12:26Speaker 2: This is a metaphor that Lisa Damore uses in her
- 12:28Speaker 2: book The Emotional Lives of Teenagers. She actually gives credits
- 12:31Speaker 2: to one of her colleagues, but I can't remember the
- 12:33Speaker 2: name of her colleagues, so Lisa Damore gets the credit.
- 12:35Speaker 2: In this conversation, she says this, it's really important. She says,
- 12:39Speaker 2: emotions matter. They give us valuable information. But imagine you've
- 12:45Speaker 2: got a board of directors running a business. You don't
- 12:50Speaker 2: let your emotional member chair the board. You make sure
- 12:56Speaker 2: that the planning and strategy guy or girl is chairing
- 12:59Speaker 2: the board. Emotions get a seat at the table, but
- 13:02Speaker 2: they don't share the board. They pass on relevant information,
- 13:05Speaker 2: but they don't share the board. And I think that
- 13:08Speaker 2: is perhaps what the whole gentle parenting emotionally intelligent parenting
- 13:13Speaker 2: movement is really all about. It's about saying, let's take
- 13:16Speaker 2: this information, let's build it into our decision making processes,
- 13:21Speaker 2: but let's make sure and this is a valid criticism
- 13:24Speaker 2: some people really do because they I'm going to say,
- 13:27Speaker 2: they panned to their children's emotions rather than coach their
- 13:29Speaker 2: children through their emotions. There's a big difference, and I've
- 13:32Speaker 2: seen both when we're pandering when we're living. Our children
- 13:35Speaker 2: have all of the emotions all the time for way
- 13:37Speaker 2: too long without the coaching that helps them to settle,
- 13:41Speaker 2: and then the problem solving that comes subsequent to that.
- 13:44Speaker 2: What we are doing is we are elevating emotions to
- 13:46Speaker 2: a level that they shouldn't be, and that will come
- 13:50Speaker 2: back to bidas. That is a reasonable criticism of gentle
- 13:53Speaker 2: parenting done wrong.
- 13:54Speaker 3: So just recently we had an experience. We have one
- 13:57Speaker 3: of our children in particular, is very emotional, big emotions
- 14:02Speaker 3: in lots of different ways.
- 14:03Speaker 2: And much emotion, and so recently.
- 14:07Speaker 3: I decided to take her to a kinesiologist and as
- 14:11Speaker 3: part of that process, she kind of just helped us
- 14:14Speaker 3: to understand why there was so much big emotion. And
- 14:18Speaker 3: so since then, I've noticed a massive shift in this child,
- 14:24Speaker 3: to the point that we had pretty much a whole
- 14:27Speaker 3: week almost without any big emotion, Like it was like,
- 14:30Speaker 3: this is massive for this child. But towards the end
- 14:35Speaker 3: of the week, things started to escalate again, and I
- 14:39Speaker 3: sat down with her and I just I said to her,
- 14:42Speaker 3: I said, what's going on? I said, We've had a really,
- 14:44Speaker 3: really good week, and I said, and things just seemed
- 14:47Speaker 3: to be unraveling a little bit. And she said, I've
- 14:51Speaker 3: already told you what's wrong. And I said, can you
- 14:53Speaker 3: tell me again? And she explained that something had happened
- 14:55Speaker 3: on Friday at school and it's just sat with her
- 14:59Speaker 3: over the weekend and it's, you know, she's been mulling
- 15:01Speaker 3: over it, and obviously the more she's thought about it,
- 15:04Speaker 3: the bigger it's God in her head. And so we
- 15:07Speaker 3: were able to talk about just what a gift it
- 15:10Speaker 3: is when her emotions start to get big. It's actually
- 15:14Speaker 3: an acknowledgement that there's something that needs to be done.
- 15:18Speaker 3: It's actually if we can see that emotion literally as
- 15:22Speaker 3: a gift to highlight that there's something we need to
- 15:26Speaker 3: address or work on, it changes everything.
- 15:30Speaker 2: It really does.
- 15:31Speaker 3: It changes everything and she was able to kind of
- 15:34Speaker 3: we had a big embrace.
- 15:35Speaker 2: I put some.
- 15:36Speaker 3: Oils on her and said, you know, I love you
- 15:38Speaker 3: and just you need to remember that in spite of
- 15:41Speaker 3: the challenge that you've had here, there are people that
- 15:44Speaker 3: love you for you, and that's that's what you need
- 15:48Speaker 3: to focus on.
- 15:48Speaker 2: The gentle, compassionate approach, the need supportive approach makes such
- 15:52Speaker 2: a difference. Now we have two more things to talk about.
- 15:54Speaker 2: We're almost out of time. So which one was the
- 15:56Speaker 2: next one we were talking about?
- 15:58Speaker 3: Oh, empathy.
- 15:59Speaker 2: Yeah, so when we get empathic with a child, sometimes
- 16:03Speaker 2: that leads to a lack of empathy for other people
- 16:05Speaker 2: around you. So just quickly, like if you're at a
- 16:07Speaker 2: restaurant or in a shopping center or in a park
- 16:10Speaker 2: and your child is having a meltdown, yes you do
- 16:13Speaker 2: need to be gentle with them, but that doesn't necessarily
- 16:16Speaker 2: mean that that is the time and place to go
- 16:18Speaker 2: through the entire process. Sometimes look around, read the room.
- 16:23Speaker 2: It might be worth saying, I know you're really upset
- 16:26Speaker 2: and we need to deal with this, but let's go
- 16:28Speaker 2: for a walk outside, or let's move over there, or
- 16:30Speaker 2: let's move away from these people, or.
- 16:32Speaker 3: There's times where I've had to say to the kids,
- 16:34Speaker 3: I know that you're really upset and I want to
- 16:36Speaker 3: talk with you about this, but I can't do that
- 16:38Speaker 3: right now.
- 16:39Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's going to depend on the age of
- 16:40Speaker 2: your child as to that.
- 16:41Speaker 3: We can just move through this as best we can
- 16:44Speaker 3: now and you and I can spend some time later tonight.
- 16:47Speaker 2: I guess the real point here is empathy for others
- 16:52Speaker 2: needs to be considered. It's not just about you and
- 16:54Speaker 2: your child. It's kind of like those people who walk
- 16:56Speaker 2: around and they're having conversations on speakerphone. It was like, no, no, no,
- 17:00Speaker 2: we don't care. We don't want you to have this conversation,
- 17:03Speaker 2: and we don't only hear the conversation. Take it somewhere else.
- 17:06Speaker 2: You can empathically and gently kick it down the road,
- 17:09Speaker 2: or move your child elsewhere so that you can show
- 17:11Speaker 2: consideration for others.
- 17:13Speaker 3: And your last one is this notion of raising kids
- 17:17Speaker 3: to be helpless.
- 17:18Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is again, this is what Samantha Sell
- 17:20Speaker 2: and Jamorris said in the Cinemony Herald. Like I said,
- 17:23Speaker 2: she conflated helicopter parenting with gentle parenting, and it kind
- 17:28Speaker 2: of well, well, this just highlights how much people struggle
- 17:32Speaker 2: to get it right. But she does quote from Judith Locke,
- 17:35Speaker 2: who wrote The Bond Side Child, and I think that
- 17:37Speaker 2: she said something that was it sounds like it's a
- 17:40Speaker 2: bit of tough love, but I kind of like what
- 17:43Speaker 2: she said. Judith Locke said, we've kind of written a
- 17:45Speaker 2: script for kids where everybody else is responsible for making
- 17:49Speaker 2: you feel better. She says, I think it's the current
- 17:53Speaker 2: environment in which we always emphasize care in these situations
- 17:57Speaker 2: as opposed to slowly introducing demands or expectations and opportunities
- 18:01Speaker 2: for them to overcome it. Now, I don't want to
- 18:05Speaker 2: turn this into a tough enough princess conversation. That's not
- 18:08Speaker 2: what it is.
- 18:08Speaker 3: I don't think you need to, though. I think about
- 18:10Speaker 3: the three c's that you talk about regularly.
- 18:12Speaker 2: Yeah, well, these are the three basic psychological needs, and
- 18:14Speaker 2: we've alliterated them. It's not technical what they are.
- 18:17Speaker 3: But you've got connection, yep, you've got competence, and you've
- 18:21Speaker 3: got sense of control, a sense of control. If we're
- 18:24Speaker 3: able to look at how we're able to meet each
- 18:26Speaker 3: of those needs. What I love about a true gentle
- 18:32Speaker 3: parent approach is that we're doing this in a way
- 18:35Speaker 3: that supports our children's autonomy. We're acknowledging that they're a
- 18:40Speaker 3: human who has rights, feelings, emotions, and desires, wants needs.
- 18:47Speaker 2: So it all comes back to and you Deith Block
- 18:49Speaker 2: has said it, although not in these words, if we
- 18:52Speaker 2: can help our kids to get to get their head
- 18:54Speaker 2: around their emotional state and pull it back together, then
- 18:56Speaker 2: we can begin to slowly introduce demands and expectations and
- 18:59Speaker 2: opportunit and is for them to overcome it. We do
- 19:01Speaker 2: need to help them to learn about those emotions though.
- 19:04Speaker 2: That's the core of need. Supportive parenting and gentle parenting
- 19:07Speaker 2: overlaps really nicely with it. I just think we need
- 19:09Speaker 2: to stop the bashing up though of gentle parenting and
- 19:11Speaker 2: gentle parents. These parents who are really involved and invested
- 19:15Speaker 2: in their kids' well being and growth and development, and
- 19:19Speaker 2: if they do it right, I think, well, well, we
- 19:23Speaker 2: don't have any research on gentle parenting. We've got plenty
- 19:25Speaker 2: of research on several aspects of it we ay all
- 19:28Speaker 2: point in a positive direction.
- 19:30Speaker 3: We've got years and years of research that supports the
- 19:34Speaker 3: parenting styles that we grew up with, which were very different.
- 19:38Speaker 2: Yeah, very different.
- 19:42Speaker 3: And an absolute lack of emotional vocabulary to suggest that
- 19:50Speaker 3: while this might not be the golden standard, where leagues
- 19:53Speaker 3: ahead of where we were.
- 19:54Speaker 2: So I'm just going to say generations ago. I'm just
- 19:56Speaker 2: going to say it.
- 19:56Speaker 3: What are you going to say?
- 19:57Speaker 2: Gentle parenting is not going to ruin your kids? Really,
- 20:01Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying.
- 20:01Speaker 3: Okay.
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