Apprenticeship role in parenting
CATHY KRAFVE Checklist Charlie

Parenting can be overwhelming.

Humans are complicated and parenting could easily be the trickiest challenge of all, particularly when you consider that each child is uniquely different from his siblings.

Alert parents really have their work cut out.

Remember how easy it was to feel overwhelmed as a young person?

I certainly do.

My teen-age years were filled with awkward moments.

Before a parent can be effective in encouraging a child, it is necessary to identify what makes a child feel discouraged, especially things that make them feel alone and abandoned.

Things that can make a kid feel overwhelmed:

!A job that is too big.

! Being unprepared.

! Social ineptitudes and embarrassments.

!Making slow progress or feeling not as good as others.

! Being at cross-purposes with parents.

! Being given few limits.

So, what's a parent to do? One solution is apprenticeship parenting.

Apprenticeship parenting means you include your child, as much as possible, in your adult world.

My mom was gifted at this and to this day I enjoy tagging along with her.

So, here's a list of ways to encourage your child by taking him along.

! Approach school projects, summer jobs, computer technology, wedding receptions, babysitting younger cousins, team sports - that is - every experience as a chance to learn skills, develop maturity, and gradually learn leadership roles.

! Realize that leadership really means servanthood.

! Recognize that the purpose of education is to be better equipped to serve others, not to glorify self.

! Be sure your child knows that he is a handcrafted, specifically gifted human who will make mistakes along the way.

! Include your kids in the challenging moments of your own life.

Before your child approaches something challenging, make sure he's seen you handle a similar challenge first.

This gives the child confidence because past experiences help alleviate fear of the unknown.

Plus, his own successes will start to pile up, giving him confidence for future challenges.

! Let him observe your attitude when things don't go your way.

Having a temper tantrum is probably a bad idea.

Yeah, I've tried that; it doesn't work all that well.

It takes a great deal of maturity to have a small person tagging along, monitoring our every move.

There is nothing like parenthood for holding us accountable; we may fool a lot of folks but we're not fooling our children.

In fact, it's safe to say, integrity can be measured by whether or not our children respect us.

One thing I found out about parenting is it will make a mature adult out of me when I let it.

With our children watching, taking charge of our own maturity is exactly what a parent must do in order to encourage, rather than discourage our children.

Next week, I'm going to write about clarifying family objectives and, also how saying no to our kiddoes actually encourages them.

I hope you'll join me again for those lists, too. If you have any thoughts to add, I hope you'll write.

!

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives in East Texas with her family. She welcomes all comments and lists at CeaKrafve2@aol.com.