A couple years ago, a former Woodland Park parent sent me a link to
an article from the
New York Times that examines the practice of “conditional parenting.” This is a parenting approach that advocates withholding acceptance, approval, praise, and even love as a way to get one’s child to do what one wants. I know, it sounds awful, but it’s exactly the technique being advocated by such popular leading lights as The Supernanny (Jo Frost).
Hi, would you share any ideas and practical examples on how to be supportive without being manipulative?
ReplyDeleteThis is going to sound like a copout, but almost everything on this blog is intended as examples of how to be supportive . . . Manipulative is in the eye of the beholder. My bottom line counsel, however, is to try to avoid commanding children or asking them too many questions (especially of the "testing" variety) and instead focus on making informative statements of fact, especially of the narrative variety.
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