100 Family Media Literacy Activities, Ages Pre-School through Teen Years

Are You a “High Hopes” Parent?

Attending to Our Children’s Attention Span

Building the Foundation for Resiliency Skills

Live and Play in Your World: Stimulus Addiction and the Growing Brain

Looking for Meaning in All the Right Places

Parenting Today: The World Has Changed, Have We?

Parenting as a Living System

Reading the Screen

Screen Time and Obesity

Screen Violence: Impact on Self as Relational Being

Teaching Children Gratefulness

Are You’re a “High Hopes” Parent?

4.         Hopeful parents comfort well. When things get worrisome or really tough, hopeful parents comfort the children and act in supportive ways during high-stress situations. Being there emotionally is a characteristic of parents who are more hopeful. They don’t let negative energies affect their ability to be present and available to their children. They are able to keep negativity at bay so that the children don’t translate it as: “There’s no time for me.” Parents laden with anxiety can’t be receptive to children’s emotional needs. Hopeful parents instill trust and openness in the parent-child communication process, keeping those doors open, even during adolescence!

5.         Hopeful parents support children’s autonomy and competence. This doesn’t mean anything goes. What is does mean is that by focusing on what the child does well every day, over time, the parent builds a strong sense of self in the child. With that comes the conviction in the child of his/her talents and skills. In the words of one of the children in Synder’s research: “The biggest thing I remember about my parents is that they taught me to do things for myself. But, I always knew they were there for me if I got in a jam…If I did foul up something, they would talk with me and not at me.” (1)

It seems that the bottom-line for high-hopes parenting is that it can help keep us our best selves, even during difficult times, and bring out the best in our children.

Then anything is possible… for us, our children…even our world.

Reference

1.         R.K. Synder, The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get Here from There, Free Press, 2003, pp. 163-210.

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