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Are you savvy about the final three “Cs” of The Seven Cs of Parenting Success? You can read them here right now! Then empower yourself by hopping over to www.morrisinstitute.com for some excellent essays straight from Tom V. Morris.
Here are Tom’s Cs:
5. Commitment
“We need an emotional commitment to the importance of what we are doing. In child raising, I don’t think there is anything more important on this Earth than growing kids into people, than to raising children, creating personalities that will make a difference for decades in this world. We need an emotional commitment to the importance of what we’re doing, to get us through those long nights, those difficult times, those challenging struggles, the sicknesses, the disappointments. If we don’t have a commitment from the heart, we’re going to fade. That’s as true in athletics, in business, as it is in parenting. We need to renew our commitment on a regular basis by reminding ourselves what it is that we’re really doing here.
That’s the commitment of the heart, that caring, that going the extra mile. No matter how tired you are, no matter how exhaustive the day has been, if you have that fire glowing in your heart, you’re going to make it through and you’re going to make it through well.”
6. Character
“We need good character to guide us and to keep us on a proper course. When Aristotle talked about character, he didn’t just talk about things like truth telling and promise keeping. He talked about things like wittiness, the ability to see the humor in a situation. He talked about resilience, about the ability to act on a big scale and on a small scale. He talked about courage and we forget, as parents, sometimes we need to have the courage to speak up for our children in a difficult situation, to help them out in a way that you might be embarrassed asking certain questions. Your child is going to spend the night away from home for the first time. There may be some questions you need to ask the other parents about what’s going to be accessible or available to your child while they’re away from home. You might feel embarrassed to ask those questions. Aristotle thought, ‘Courage matters in the small things as well as in the big things.’ ”
7. Capacity to Enjoy
“The seventh C is the one so many people tell me is the hardest for them to live, day-to-day. I did a survey of business people, of executives, a few years ago. Over 60% told me that number seven was the hardest of these conditions for success. I bet if you surveyed parents, you might get a very similar answer. Number seven says we need a capacity to enjoy the process along the way.
It seems like such a simple thing. Note, I’m not saying you need to enjoy each and every moment of your job, of your family life, or of anything. There are tough things. A screaming child, a broken vase on the floor; you’re not going to enjoy every moment of every day, but if you have a capacity to enjoy whatever can be enjoyed each day, you look for ways to enjoy situations, then those bad times aren’t as bad and the good times are even better.
This capacity to enjoy the process is something the great philosophers have talked about for thousands of years, being in the moment, relishing the moment, completely absorbing yourself in whatever it is. On a beautiful day, rather than sitting outdoors and fretting about how many of the things on your to-do list you haven’t gotten to yet, why not look at that beautiful red cardinal sitting on the branch of the tree next to you, or enjoy the flowers for a few minutes.
You don’t have to be ‘blessed’ out half of the day, but if you could just enjoy a few moments of your day, now and then, throughout the day, they are little punctuation marks of refreshment throughout your time. They will renew your spirit and restore your strength for the challenges you do have to step up to.”
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