Got Kids? Need help?

Parents need a coach. Our kids can bring out the worst in us. Sure, they go to school and study. They might even do homework; but what are they doing the rest of the time? They are studying YOU! They are trying to figure out how to work you. They are conspiring to influence you. They swap covert texts on ‘how to persuade your parents.’ Don’t panic! You have Timothy Smith the Parents Coach in your corner …

It’s so easy to let old school ways creep in. You know - the things your parents did, that you swore you’d NEVER do! Then you catch yourself copying your mother or father at their worst. Frightening, isn’t it?

Our fears get in the way of effective parenting. We see the rampant competition to be smart, cool, popular, pretty, muscular, fashionable and with the latest kid gear – toys, tech, or tunes. It makes us feel inadequate. So we sign them up for more classes and activities. We buy them more stuff. We worry about them night and day. And for some reason, all of this time, energy, activity and investment, doesn’t always impact our kids, or make us feel better.

It’s because we are parenting on react. Whatever the culture says, we do. Whatever the neighbors have their kids signed up for, we follow suit. We reason that we need to give our kids advantages, which means activities.
When it’s all said and done; more is said than done. And we’re are not sure our kids are more prepared for life, in spite of the frenetic activity and all of the stuff.

When it comes to raising kids that are prepared to take on the future, it’s easy to settle for the goal of ‘nice kids’. But let’s not confuse nice with good. They aren’t the same. Nice has more to do with being safe than strong moral character. Safe-oriented kids tend to be posers. They tend to be weak. They tend to be ill-prepared for the challenges of adult life.

 
In my bestselling book, The Danger of Raising Nice Kids – Preparing Our Children to Change Their World,

 I challenge parenting which focuses on externals – grades; athletics; appearance; performance; even manners and I challenge parents to parent from the inside out. Nice means a pleasant, friendly, well-mannered, groomed young person; but it also means strange, lazy, and foolish. It shares the same Latin root for “ignorant” which means “not knowing.” I don’t want my kid to be a nice, ignorant fool! Who cares if he excels at school or on the sports field; but they are unprepared for life? I want my kids to be prepared to change their world, do you?