Successful Parenting

10
I drew up a plan to make this lesson memorable.
We were going to fix the snowmobile together.”
Over the next few weeks, J.J. and his father faithfully
worked at straightening out the bumper,
rechroming it, and repairing the hood with new
fiberglass. “J.J. spent many hours sanding the fiberglass
until it was smooth and ready for paint.
He didn’t complain once. I think he realized he
was getting off relatively easy, and, besides that, he
was enjoying the fruits of his labor. I was proud of
the way he stuck with the job until it was finished.
He had learned a valuable lesson in perseverance,”
his father says.
6
Allow Children to Suffer and
Learn from Their Mistakes
“Parents in competent families tend to allow
their children and themselves to experience
the cost of irresponsibility more easily then parents
in other families,” notes Dolores Curran. She
stresses that “competent” parents allow children
to suffer the consequences of their actions. “If a
library book is lost through carelessness, they insist
their children make restitution out of their
own allowances. If children offend others because
of their behavior, they, not the parents, do