Do you want to be a better parent?

Do you want to be a better parent? Be mindful!

Who doesn’t want to be a better parent? I have been a parent for a long time now and I still say or do the wrong thing sometimes. But you can improve!

Dr. Carolina Corthorn did a study of 40 mothers who worked for a university and had kids in the university’s daycare. Most of the moms had higher education but their income was pretty average with a bunch earning significantly less than the average and bunch significantly more. All the moms filled out a lot of questionnaires before the meditation program, then half received the 8-week MBSR program. All the mothers filled out questionnaires at the end of the program and 2 months later.

The questionnaires asked about things like “Listening with full attention”, “Emotional awareness of self and child” and “Compassion for self and child”. Other surveys asked about how much being a parent causes stress, how much a parent feels bonded with their child, and how much parents get their child to cooperate.

Some of these you would expect to be affected by meditation, I would expect moms who took the MBSR course to be less stressed. But feeling bonded? Getting their child to cooperate?

But sure enough, those mothers who took the 8-week course did better on so many to the measures of parenting. Of course they were less stressed, but the moms also listened to their children better, were less judgmental about their parenting and more accepting of themselves and their children.

I wish I was more accepting with my kids when they were younger, heck, even now. From what I have heard, most people think there is room for improvement in their parenting. Now you know how to become a better parent. Start meditating!

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You can reach Dr. Shaya Kass at Shaya@MindfulAboutLife.com or at 1-800-544-0559

This newsletter is published by Dr. Shaya Kass and is meant for informational purposes only.

Photo is in the public domain and was downloaded from https://pixabay.com/en/mother-child-daughter-smile-family-1507564/

The article discussed in this newsletter is: Corthorn, C. (2017). Mindfulness and Parenting: Relations and Benefits on Self-Reported Variables Among Meditating and Non-Meditating Mothers of Preschool Children (Doctoral Dissertation). Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Retrieved from http://repositorio.conicyt.cl/handle/10533/182510