Best parenting advice....

I remember being on holiday with my three young children years ago. A young couple approached me and the husband asked me an interesting question. He said that they had been watching my children and was impressed with the way they interacted and played. They were expecting their first child and wondered if I could give them any advice on child rearing. I remember feeling great pressure to give this young man correct advice. Then I remembered one of the best child rearing advice I was given by my French grandmother-in-law when my children were young: when a child first falls down and cries, do not give in to a mother’s first instinct to comfort and sooth him but rather look at the child matter of factly, and tell him that it was a mistake he/she made so let’s get yourself up and get going. This advice served me well. It taught them, among many lessons, how to be responsible for their own behavior and not to be whiny when they are very young.

My three children are now adults with good careers (lawyer, neurosurgeon and a partner in a financial firm on Wall Street) and children of their own. Hopefully, some of the child rearing lessons I’ve learned over the years can help them as they guide and rear their children.