Three secrets! There must be more to parenting than three secrets!
Of course there is more to it than that. However, there are three things that you can do as a parent to help assure you raise an incredibly successful child. It all comes down to a couple of assumptions.
Many people see children as “just kids”. They don’t see them as capable of understanding complex ideas and relationships. As a result, they speak in very simplistic terms (because they don’t think they would understand) and then wonder why kids don’t perform exactly the way they wanted.
Additionally, some people don’t expect a lot from kids. They don’t feel they have the ability to know boundaries. More often, some parents are very uncomfortable establishing boundaries because they are hard to enforce, they don’t want to make their children upset or because they are afraid the kids will “hate” them.
My School, Quest Martial Arts in Ann Arbor Michigan has a very successful children’s program. One reason is that we treat kids as people. I also have owned a business improvement company since 1993. I have trained over 25,000 people. I have found that there is VERY little difference in adult and child learning theory. In our school, we follow the premise that kids are people.
So, what are the three secrets? Praise, Correct and Praise. Praise, catch them doing something right. Correct, suggest one thing that might improve what they are doing. Praise, catch them doing what you suggested and find a way to praise them for the improvement.
Our society is trained to “catch people doing something wrong”. Create more success by catching your kids doing something right!
In a later article, I will give you some secrets for establishing those boundaries I mentioned earlier. Visit my website, ThoughtsToResults.com for more tools to help you and your child attain all you can in your life.
Keith Copeland: Organization Improvement Consulting since 1993. Keith has trained over 25,000 people internationally. He opened Quest Martial Arts in Ann Arbor Michigan 1998. Keith is the author of a number of books, videos and audio materials. Visit Keith on the web at ThoughtsToResults.com or by email at keith@ThoughtsToResults.com.