That moment after you have listened to many hours of history and many hours of professional development podcasts and you realize you haven’t listened to one parenting podcast. Yeah. My most important job is Father to Two Daughters. Chief Dad Officer. Vice President of Dad. So today I did something about it. I strapped on the ear buds, set out for my daily walk, and turned on the Building Great Minds podcast (http://buildgreatminds.com/). It doesn’t really matter what it was or what it was about. I found it by accident. The point is that I took action to become more amazing at my most important job.
It’s easy for me to rationalize why I had not, until now, focused on Dad Development. Here are some of my most favored excuses (the most insidious of excuses are the ones that are kinda real):
– I was taught that “there is no book” telling you how to parent. Every parent does the best they can and hopes for the best and well, we all screw it up anyway.
– By focusing on professional development, I will get closer to the life I want. The life I want is to work less and make more money. This will allow me to be home more and thus be a better dad. See. It’s all for the kids. Not my ego. Or my sense of accomplishment. Or food for my geek brain.
– I am already pretty emotionally intelligent. I can figure this stuff out on my own.
– I’m not into the energy field, granola crunching, chakra massaging, be-your-child’s-best-friend stuff. That’s all that’s out there.
Guess what. Those are horrible excuses. The Building Great Minds podcast (I’d recommend starting with episode 13) seems very practical and is right up my alley. What caught my attention was the title: How to Discipline Kids without Feeling any Guilt. You know me and guilt; we go way back. Some of it is applicable to my weird style of running projects, too. Acknowledge emotions. Hang out with them for a little bit. Be the calm in the storm. Teach kids how to acknowledge, hang out with, and work through their emotions. Good stuff.
What is your favorite parenting technique that you also use at work?