I have a young friend who is an amazing woman and wonderful mother to her two young daughters.  Her parenting skills are right on target.  “No” means “no”.  She doesn’t laugh when her children are doing something inappropriate (that is another WHOLE discussion for a later date).  They go to bed on time and even when they call out, “Mommy, I not tired”, she has already said her goodnights and they fall asleep on their own.

But the number one parenting skill she has that impresses me the most is that she spends time with her daughters.  I can hear you now, “What do you mean ?  We all spend time with our children.”  What I mean is, she spends time with her daughters.  She isn’t just there physically, she’s there emotionally also.   When she does something with her girls, she is there giving them 100% of her.  Does she spend all of her time catering to her children? Absolutely not!  Have I mentioned that she has a full time job with what is sometimes a two hour commute?  She’s a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend.  She wears all of those hats.  She finds time for herself.  But when she tells her children they are going to do something together, that is exactly what they do, all three of them, together.

Here’s one of my favorite examples, snack time.  When the girls have a snack, she sits down with them and visits with them while they eat.  They’re at the table, she’s at the table.  They are learning how to have a conversation while eating.  They are enjoying each other’s company.  Just think how that will work to her advantage when they become teenagers.

Her three sisters have similar parenting skills tweaked to fit their own families. I think it is a testimony to their parents, who I suspect, raised them the same way.