Healthy Parenting: An Empowering Guide for Adult Children (A Fireside/Parkside Recovery Book) - Softcover

If you grew up in a troubled or dysfunctional family and suffered through a parent's problems with chronic illness, addiction, emotional upheaval, or loss, you probably know what you don't want for your kids. But you may lack the tools and experiences to create the nurturing home you do want: a place where your children's physical and emotional needs are consistently met and where your children feel safe, valued, and loved.

In Healthy Parenting, Janet Woititz, a leading therapist, contrasts what happens in a healthy family with what happens in an unhealthy family to show just how your own upbringing influences the way you raise your children, and what you can do to make their upbringing better for them. For example:
-- In a healthy family the child is always loved even if the child's behavior is unacceptable. In an unhealthy family not only is the behavior criticized but the child is shamed as well.
-- In a healthy family the parent is teacher and guide. In an unhealthy family the child brings himself up the best he can.
-- In a healthy family there is structure, and reasonable limits are set. In an unhealthy family there is chaos or extreme rigidity.

As both therapist and parent, Janet Woititz can give you the guidance you missed in your childhood and help you avoid the mistakes your parents made.

In every family, parenting is filled with challenges as well as joys, and making the choice to become a parent means choosing both. But if you come from a troubled or dysfunctional family where you were emotionally or physically abused, you may wonder if you are really ready to parent children in a healthy way. The example set by your own parents taught you what you don't want for your children. How can you overcome this painful legacy and create what you do want: a stable, well-functioning home where your children feel safe, valued, and loved? The good news is that dysfunctional patterns and troubled lives do not have to be handed down to the next generation. Janet G. Woititz has counseled families for more than 20 years. Now, in Healthy Parenting, she draws upon her vast practical experience as a therapist, mother, and best-selling author to bring you the support and guidance you seek in creating a safe, nurturing environment for your children. Clear, direct, and practical, Healthy Parenting contrasts what happens in a healthy family with what happens in an unhealthy family, enabling you to identify the trouble spots in your own background and to overcome them in dealing with your own children. Effective parenting, Woititz contends, emerges from being able to recognize how your upbringing influences the way you raise your children, and knowing how to keep what works and discard what doesn't. Writing with clarity and compassion, she explores the vital challenges every parent faces - issues such as understanding boundaries, tolerating feelings, responding to a crisis, and learning to emphasize love rather than shame in teaching or disciplining a child. Throughout Healthy Parenting, frank and clarifying examples of common parenting dilemmas and triumphs bring these matters into brilliant focus. When adult children of troubled families learn what normal parenting is and what it is not, great burdens can be lifted, healing can take place, and loving, secure children can flourish in warm and stable homes. Whether you are just thinking about having children or have already become a parent, Janet G. Woititz offers the help and reassurance you need to make healthy parenting a part of your home.