I'm taking a parenting class this summer. I wish I had taken it when my children were young. I felt I was doing the best I could as a parent, but I can see now that some of my parenting skills were lacking. It's a tremendous responsibility to think that the way you interact and live with these little children can help or hinder them for the rest of their lives. I have been thinking a lot lately of what we as humans do to survive the world we live in. The world can be so overwhelming and stressful that many turn to food, drugs, media, etc. to escape what is happening and perhaps to lessen some of the stress and pain. I read a quote in my textbook yesterday from a therapist that really hit home. Everyone would benefit from this, she just happened to be writing about her work with adolescent girls.
"All the craziness in the world comes from people trying to escape suffering. All mixed-up behavior comes from unprocessed pain. I teach girls to sit with their pain, to listen to it for messages about their lives, to acknowledge and describe it rather than run from it" (Mary Pipher, 1994).
This concept of focusing on what is going on in our life is so basic, and yet so hard to do. I deal with some anxiety issues. For me, if I start to get that feeling I realize that I have let my thoughts go forward or backward in time- if I stay on the exact moment at hand, I can handle what is going on.
I really like that quote. I think that is one of the things lacking in our society- coping skills. We're too worried about offending other people and how to act that we don't think about teaching how to cope when a child says something mean. We punish the child that said something a coddle the one that was offended. That isn't going to do any good for any one in the long run.
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