Parenting & Children Notes.

What is your family doing, does it affect you and your ability to parent, exist, cope?

Are they just living for each persons survival?

You say no?
Have a good look (especially if you are one of the parents) and try to see if the closeness of a family is there in your family.
Do they get up as one, and then eat breakfast as one group?
Do they talk and listen to each other?
Do any of them make sacrifices to help other members of the family?

Or do the members of your family get up individually.
Do they each live in the house but ignore each other as much as they can?
Do they wander off in different directions whenever they get the chance?
Do members of the family seem to prefer the company of somebody on the other end of the phone, or who the child/teenager is texting to on the cell phone, or just plain prefer to sit in front of the television set than mingle with other family members?

Children having squabbles with each other is reasonably normal as each child tries to compare itself with other members of the family. Children doing this is not necessary something to worry much about.

There is a reasonable chance that in certain parts of the world that some people do not actually realise what a good happy family is. What you have not been a part of is also what is hard for you to gain a good idea of. How can you understand what a good family is or good family life is, if you have never known a good family life, or really been close enough to understand a good family?

All the best from
James Martin Sandbrook.
‎Friday, ‎22 ‎December ‎2006, ‏‎11:21:50 PM.