Liz Matheis, Ph.D. provides advice for reprogramming the messages you have received from your parents and pass on to your child.

Parenting is about you, the parent, and the “stuff” that you carried into this gig. You and I both know that parenting did not come with a manual with a colorful cover or an appendix with chapters that range from infancy to adulthood, and we certainly didn’t have to take an exam or gain a license to become a parent.

Becoming a Parent

If you ask me, before we decide to start a family, we should be required to take a course and gain a certificate that says, “You’ve been warned. You’re about to get on the bumpiest roller coaster ride of your life. You will learn and teach, you will watch and be watched, you will guide and be guided.”