Submitted by: Barbara Desmarais, Parenting and Life Coach

In speaking with parents a comment I frequently hear is “My child won’t listen!” Repeated attempts in trying to get a child to co-operate often lands on deaf ears and leaves parents feeling exhausted and helpless. Frequently we say things we later regret and become riddled with guilt. Usual attempts often include nagging, yelling, spanking, time out, lecturing and threats. Despite consistently not getting the results we’re looking for, we resort to the same methods time and time again. We usually use what we were taught to use by our own parents. Although we often resolve to ourselves that we will do things differently and not resort to some of their methods of parenting, we do. It seems to be automatic. This is not intended to be an article about blaming our parents, rather an understanding of why we do what we do and provide some alternative responses. There were no parenting courses for our parents and they all did the best they knew how.

What has the working world come to? In the good 'ol days people used to have fullsome conversations, write comprehensive and well thought out memos and letters etc. Now, they pepper you with dozens of erratic and fragmented emails. On average I only get about 1-2 hours of desktime a day but receive 70-80 emails each day as well. Needless to say I don't get through them all and they pile up over the days/weeks.