What it Really Takes to Raise Emotionally Healthy Families Series- Day 3

Consciously Parenting: What it Really Takes to Raise Emotionally Healthy Families — *Book 1 of the Consciously Parenting series*

Connect with Your Inner Guidance

Inner guidance doesn’t have formulaic solutions, but always come back to connecting in relationship, holding the importance of everyone’s needs whenever possible. By making conscious parenting decisions, we have the power to create connection instead of disconnection, love instead of fear, peace instead of discord. Then we can return to our natural “perfect” state of harmony, peace, and joy.

From the book Consciously Parenting: What it Really Takes to Raise Emotionally Healthy Families

So much of parenting is about learning to respond to what is happening instead of reacting out of fear. There is no detailed instruction book for parenting your child through the situations that will come up. When you can come back to a focus on the relationship, you can find your way through most situations.

Undone Chores and the Path to Connection

One mother was really frustrated because her son was coming home from school and not doing chores that needed to be done. She had tried punishing him and taking things away, like his television time, and had left notes on the television demanding he do his chores first. I suggested that instead she put a note on the television asking how his day had been and consider making a snack for him when he got home. She decided to try it.

Her son came into the kitchen and sat down at the bar stool and told her all about his really stressful day. When he finished talking about what had happened, he went to do his chores without her saying anything.

She had been afraid that unless she pushed, he would never do the chores. When her fear moved out of the way, they were able to connect and the chores also got done without an issue. After that, it was much easier for her to access her own internal guidance and find ways to move through their conflicts with connection.

Author

Rebecca Thompson Hitt

Rebecca Thompson Hitt, MS, MFT is the founder and executive director of The Consciously Parenting Project (2007). Rebecca loves supporting individuals and parents to grow themselves up in their current relationship challenges. She delights in empowering people to find peace and connection with their loved ones, supporting the transformation of the way we understand our connections. Her holistic approach, which includes our earliest experiences and nervous system patterns, her gentleness and compassion, and her deep listening without pathologizing, helps us to see ourselves and those we care about with new eyes, supporting the transformation needed in the world starting with our closest relationships. With over 30 years of professional experience working with individuals, couples, and families, in addition to her own personal healing work raising her now young adult sons, Rebecca is dedicated to transforming our relationships stories, one relationship and one family at a time.

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