People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children.

(Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes)

It is so easy for us adults, feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of adulthood, to forget how difficult it is being a child. Whether age 8 or 18, it can be just plain hard to be a kid. School is either incredibly difficult or incredibly boring, relationships are seemingly always full of melodrama or pain, and body image and hormone issues are, well, just lovely. Such is the story of being immature, struggling to grow up and out, and living in constant need of validation.

But all of that is not always the hardest part. Unfortunately, the hardest part about being a kid, oftentimes, is having to relate with their parents. Even those of us parents with the best intentions will usually project our own unfulfilled hopes, and our worry-filled fears, upon our kids. And it leaves our kids feeling the weight of all the unmet expectations of the family.

That’s the force we’re all trying to stop with ScreamFree Parenting. And a possible first step is asking yourself, in a calm way, one question:

Would you have liked to have you as a parent?