Empowering Your Child - A Parenting Crossroad

The word "empowering" is floating around the parenting community quite a lot these days. When asked, most parents are in favor of it. When you speak to parents about educating their children about the principles of the law of attraction, most are in favor of it. Parents love the part about their children thinking positive thoughts, choosing positive actions, and being grateful for what they have in their life. However, as you go further into the meaning and purpose of children having an understanding of the law of attraction in their lives, parents tend to hesitate.

Actually letting go of control and allowing their children to make their own choices is uncomfortable to say the least. Concerns and the desire to protect them are the most common reasons. Of course the fact that the role of a parent to protect their children from physical and emotional harm in any parenting method goes without saying. On the other hand, allowing children to make choices that do not always produce successful results is necessary for them to grow and learn. Control over these kinds of situations is the area of contention.

While many of these concerns can be easily addressed, the more important point to look at is what is behind this hesitation and concern.

And that is that many parents are uneasy with relinquishing their power in their children's lives and supporting the real premise of the law of attraction which is that we all are responsible for and in control of our own lives, what happens in it, and what we experience. And yes, that includes children.

For the most part, the fear of relinquishing power that many parents feel reflects the way they were raised by their parents.

This new approach to parenting that inspires and encourages a child to follow his own path in life and create his own journey is appealing but at the same time is completely foreign to how they grew up. And so parents feel an inner tug of war taking place.

Instinctively they know to move forward in their thinking is what makes sense and what is in the best interest of their children. However, their beliefs from their own upbringing act as an anchor that holds them to "old school" ways of raising children.

"Empowering" children means teaching your children about their power in their own lives, encouraging them to be aware of it and to use it.

While it might mean they will make choices that are not necessarily in line with your preferences, it also means that they will have the skills to be confident, courageous in their convictions, enjoy a healthy self-esteem, and assume responsibility for their choices and actions.

"Empowering" children does not mean that they will no longer need parents or respect parents. Parents are still the parents. The criteria of your role is simply adjusted from being a dictator in your child's life, making all the choices and decisions for him, to being your child"s biggest supporter, best role model, and most of all their number one source of unconditional love.

As today's parents come to this crossroad in parenting, the most important thing to remember is that an empowered child will become an adult who can and will create a life he truly wants. It will be a life carved out of his own preferences and choices.

After all, isn't that what all parents from all generations have always wanted for their children?