Sandra Dodd

1. Give your love generously and criticism sparingly. Be your
children's partner. Support them and respect them. Never belittle
them or their interests, no matter how superficial, unimportant, or
even misguided their interests may seem to you. Be a guide, not a
dictator. Shine a light ahead for them, and lend them a hand, but
don't drag or push them. You WILL sometimes despair when your vision
of what your child ought to be bangs up against the reality that they
are their own person. But that same reality can also give you great
joy if you learn not to cling to your own preconceived notions and
expectations.




This is one of thirteen items Pam Sorooshian wrote up in response to
a question on a state list. It will be new to most of the people here.

I'm going to put the items out separately.

Names for them would be cool. Maybe they could have one-word names,
or XandX names (Ren and Stimpy, Mutt and Jeff) like... support and
respect (but I don't know if they'd all have a two-word "summary."




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]