Powerful Parenting: Every Parent Must Read This

I was sent one of the most powerful blog posts I’ve ever read the other day. It was truly a game-changer for me as a parent. One of the things many parents take pride in is teaching their children something that has the potential to change things that are bigger than themselves, a way of thinking and understanding the world around them that has the potential to change an unhealthy trend in human behavior to a positive and empowering human condition.

The post is titled No-Part 1: Mama Taught Me How to Say No to Sex. It was posted by Rebecca Flin on the blog site Disrupting Dinner Parties: Feminism for Everyone. In her post, Rebecca chronicles a childhood event that provided her mother with a teachable moment that would essentially change how she viewed her role in preventing herself from being taken advantage of by others. Her mother executed the “lesson” with amazing direction, practicality, and sensibility. She even made the content understandable to the, then 7-year-old blogger and her 4-year-old brother. Not only did she equip Rebecca with skills to say what she means and mean what she says (she has her practice her intonation aloud) when she says “NO” but she also impresses upon her little brother why and how he must understand and respect the “NO” that really means “NO”. That’s a two-for-one parenting moment!

If more parents engage in powerful conversations and teach behavioral shifts as she describes, generations to come will be comfortable with sending clear and explicit messages about their desires and limits and others will be more responsive to those messages.