Published: Irish Independent
Author: Malie Coyne
If your children had one wish for you this coming year, it would be your acceptance that being a ‘good enough’ parent to them is just that… enough. But what does ‘good enough’ parenting mean in reality and how is it better than striving to be the best?
In his book A Good Enough Parent (1987), Bruno Bettelheim stated that ‘Perfection is not within the grasp of ordinary human beings’. And yet somehow in the age we live in, where we seem to hold high expectations for everything we do, including our parenting, many parents feel that there must be a ‘right’ way to parent and (surprise, surprise), most of us are falling short.
In an effort to relieve parents of the pressure many feel to meet their children’s every need and quash a few parenting myths, here are my three pillars of ‘good enough’ parenting:
