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Practice Good Parenting
Good parents are made, not born. You can learn to be a better parent
by reading and talking to parents whom you respect.
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Read up. Dominic and Lois both read books on parenting such as those by Penelope
Leach and the team of Faber and Mazlish. There are many simple,
valuable lessons she can learn about age-appropriate structure,
discipline, and sibling interactions. These things are
not
intuitive.
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Give. Dominic and Lois know only too well that parenting is boring,
physically exhausting, time consuming, emotionally draining, and, for
a very long time, basically unrewarding. But they also know that
they are the only mother and father their children have.
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Spend time. Dominic resists the temptation to "program" every
minute with his children. He leaves time to take walks, cook meals
together, kick a soccer ball, and so on. Nothing profound happens.
But Dominic sees that things come up that give him a chance to model
good sportsmanship, honesty, persistence, and other values he wants
to pass on. Every once in a great while, Helene will confide
something in him. He knows that she would never do this if all they
did was go to the movies and watch TV. He also tries to spend some
private time with each child individually, and to give each one
individual attention.
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Disclaimer: We are not giving legal advice. No warranties. We disclaim all legal liability. More...
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