“Too-broad questions, such as, "What's on your mind?" are apt to be answered "nothing" nearly one hundred percent of the time. Be careful of slipping into ""psycho-speak," however. Kids pick up instantly your attempt at being a pseudo-shrink. Most resent it and are apt to tune out anything that sounds like you're reading a script from the latest child-psychology text.” MindChildrenKidsReadingSpeakSoundPsychologyLike YouPicksPercentHundredScriptsCarefulTunesBroadsBe CarefulShrinksResentPsychoSlippingPseudoChild Psychology Book:The Single-parent Family: Living Happily in a Changing World Source: The Single-parent Family: Living Happily in a Changing World
“Single parents in particular may have trouble maintaining themselves as authority figures because of underlying guilt; they feel acontinuing sense that they have deprived their kids of the second parent, and so they tend to give in to the children's requests, even when unreasonable.” GivingFeelsMayChildrenKidsParentTroubleFiguresParticularDisciplineAuthorityGuiltMaintainingDeprivedRequestUnreasonableSingle ParentAuthority Figures Author:Marge M. Kennedy
“Our kids are not here to comfort us, to entertain us, or to validate us. Those things need to come from ourselves and from other adults.” NeedsKidsComfortAdults Book:The Single-parent Family: Living Happily in a Changing World Source: The Single-parent Family: Living Happily in a Changing World