RC Activities Contribute to My Parenting
I agree that the dominant society in the United States (and maybe elsewhere) gives an inaccurate message that teenagers do not need or want closeness with their parents.
Being available to my daughter continues to be extremely important. As I write this, I am sitting right beside her while she does homework, and we are feeling connected to one another.
Being one-on-one with me is often my daughter’s favorite thing to do. It’s also important that she have relationships with other people in which she is well thought about and closely connected. Activities that engage her include an athletic team and a summer job working with younger children. When I am participating in RC, she spends time with other adults (including her dad) and with young people.
Co-Counseling sessions and workshops, and teaching RC classes, contribute to the quality of my parenting. My daughter needs me to have those opportunities to discharge and continually think better. It is important for her flourishing and mine that I keep my re-emergence, physical well-being (exercise), and relationships with other adults central. It’s not always obvious how to balance all that, and sometimes I need to “drop everything” when my daughter needs me.
Some of the choices available to me arise out of my ample resources as a white middle-class USer who does not, for example, need to work two jobs to pay my expenses.
USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of parents
(Present Time 206, January 2022)