What if we, as parents, aren’t meant to have a say? Apart from safety boundaries, the rest is not ours to control.

What if we, as parents, aren’t meant to have a say? Apart from safety boundaries, the rest is not ours to control.
Your family contract can look as formal or informal as you choose. The most effective ones are often scrawled out on the back of a paper bag – because that was handy when the perfect contract-making opportunity naturally occurred.
We still continue to have rich, robust discussions that are meaningful and useful. Our family values contribute to my being able to parent them as they grow.
An open discussion about values is a brilliant way to align your family and can make all the difference in the world for a teenager who is wanting to find out more about how they tick.
Ditch the judgement talk that’s happening, it’s time to out those lurking values and make them visible.
Using the space to pause allows me time to think about what it is that’s most important to say.