We want our children to grow up to be confident, friendly, useful, secure about who they are, generous, helpful, loving and kind toward others.
There’s a simple way to help them get there.
Suzanne and I are teaching an Empowered to Connect parenting class at our church, and this week we’re talking about developing healthy attachment with children. This can be a real struggle for families raising “kids from hard places” but it’s an essential part of healing and growth.
Here’s a snippet of our reading this week from Deborah Gray’s Nurturing Adoptions:
…when children are attaching in positive settings, they are literally being wired to become positive people. Their brain development is tilted in a positive direction. When children are moving into new homes, they will need to experience a highly positive and nurturing home environment in order to overcome their past and to take advantage of the plasticity of the developing brain. Children who have previously been abused or neglected may have been wired to be negative. Unless they experience something very different, nothing will change. Parents need to be deliberate in order to counteract their own disappointment with the mood difficulties their children may be having. They should be aware that they may have to create positive moods–and that they cannon take negative moods personally (p. 128).
Want your child to become a positive person? Create a safe, loving, positive environment in your home.
It’s simple but it’s not easy.