The Pressures of Modern-Day Parenting
Last week I stated that the two biggest challenges I see for parents these days are: 1. Not focusing simply on our children’s behavior, but understanding the context of the situation and the brain/mind-states of the child underlying their behavior 2. Reclaiming our natural intuition when it comes to parenting Let’s start by looking at some of the pressures that our generation is facing when it comes to parenting and how these pressures can disconnect us from a well of deeper wisdom in caring for our little ones. Here are a few of the difficulties that we face: 1. A lack of...
Read MoreSeeing Deeper than Behavior
Before we move on, allow me to explain why last week I asked you to reflect on your long term intentions with respect to your parenting. Life with children is incredibly arduous at times. We are often exhausted, stretched thin, and maxed-out. In these moments we can find ourselves becoming reactive and moving to stamp out “bad behavior” with little insight as to how our intervention will impact their long-term development, or even how this behavior came to be in the first place. In these times, we need a better part of ourselves to step forward — a consience of sorts — to...
Read MoreWhat Should We Cultivate?
Now it is time to hear from you parents out there: What qualities, capacities, and values do you want to pass on to your children in their journey to become “fully themselves?” When you feel into your deepest hopes for them, what do you find? Tell us what characteristics in your son or daughter would fill you with admiration, satisfaction, and fullness for what they have become. Use the comments section below to share your views with the group. I want to hear about your view of “what is a fully developed human being?” We are the people who are shaping the next...
Read MoreOur Children: The Sons and Daughters of Life’s Longing for Itself
“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bow from which your children...
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Chris White, M.D. is a board-certified pediatrician whose parenting work aims to optimize the developmental potential of children and their parents. He regularly writes on 
