“What usually has the strongest psychic effect on the child is the life which the parents have not lived.” – Carl Jung
It’s the most tragic thing, for a parent to want the best for their child, yet inadvertently come from an Unconscious place of wanting less than the best for their child because seeing the child be fully happy and what they are capable of being, having and Receiving, triggers the parent’s own Unconscious emotional pain.
Parents may not realise that they are getting triggered by all the things they themselves weren’t allowed to be, or do, or have. When we have our buttons pressed by our children’s greater freedoms and opportunities, can we catch ourselves and not put our judgements onto them?
Here are four principles which we’ve already covered, plus one we’ll address in Volume II, that can aid Conscious Parenting hugely:
- Critiquing the behaviour, not criticising the child
- Encouraging the child to be Self-Referral, and not External Referral
- Tuning into the other person, i.e. the child
- Avoid Third Party Trigger Dumping
- Appreciating that the current education system is sub-optimal, even dangerous and destructive, and children will naturally sense this and wisely have valid concerns and resistances