You may wonder why your child doesn’t respond the same way you did as a child. She may be more willful or disrespectful, which causes you to wonder what kind of person she is to act this way. Today’s children aren’t the way you were when you grew up. Times have changed. Today’s children have their own ideas and are more independent. They want things the way they want them and they usually insist on having them now.

Children today can feel like a handful to their parents. These young people are powerful, capable, and internet-ready. They are less willing to do what they are told and have stronger opinions about things. They are also more sensitive to the emotional environment in which they live, which can result in behavior patterns that are frustrating and uncomfortable to themselves and their parents.

What used to be considered good parenting is no longer adequate to raise today’s children in our modern world. Children need a new approach from their parents if they are to flourish. They need for you to be stronger, clearer and more sensitive. They need for you to nurture their emotional wholeness so they can flourish and express their brilliant innate potential. In our rapidly changing times, they need a solid, loving, emotionally safe foundation with you.

One of the things I do in my Parenting with Joy Training is guide parents to be more aware of their child’s emotional wholeness and to make this a priority. This means making your child’s emotional well-being a higher priority than the orderliness of his room, the color of her hair or the clothes she wears, and his grades in school. When your child is emotionally whole, he will much more easily and naturally make wise choices in all of the areas of his life.

Think about it this way. When you feel joyous, confident and fulfilled in life, you do your best work and things go positively and easily. You have a lot more fun. When the opposite is true and you feel unhappy, confused or alone, things don’t go well. Everything seems hard, and simply getting up and making your bed can feel like a monumental task.

The same is true for your child. When she is flourishing emotionally, her natural brilliance radiates, and she is loving, creative and able to achieve what she desires. However, when she struggles with unhappiness, her health suffers. Her grades drop, emotional and behavior problems appear, and she is less motivated to participate fully in life.

Love Joyously!

Today’s children require a new style of parenting. You need to know how to allow freedom and self-expression while clearly setting limits that empower your child and not limit him. You need to be an insightful, aware guide and facilitator, not a disciplinarian. You need to be the best person you can be in order to be the best parent you can be.

Emotional wholeness is the powerful key that makes it all work. Emotional wholeness means being who you are, listening to yourself and doing what feels best to you. Emotional wholeness gives you and your child a strong sense of personal identity and confidence, the ability to feel deeply and live life with freedom, clarity, focus, joy and love of self and others. When your child is emotionally whole, he wants to get along with you and is emotionally connected with himself and with you.

When you make emotional wholeness a priority, you will notice amazing, wonderful things happen. Your child will express herself in ways you never imagined possible. She will be kinder and more cooperative, more motivated to achieve significant goals, and will make profound observations of discovery about herself and about life. I’ve had so many delighted clients tell me stories about the surprising new things their child did and said since making emotional wholeness a priority.

When you realize that emotional wholeness is the key to all of your child’s future success and happiness, the choice is really a simple one. You probably already know you want your child to be emotionally whole. Now it is a matter of making it a priority for your child and for yourself. Just imagine what a creative, joyous combination that will make!