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Parenting Competency #6: Life Skills

Life skills probably isn’t the first phrase that comes to your mind when you think of competent parenting.  The study I am taking these competencies from defined life skills as providing for a child, having a steady income (I believe that is what allows one to provide for a child) and planning for the future.

The big piece to get out of this is stability.  Stability for children is of utmost importance to their well being.  It allows them to feel relaxed enough in life that they can achieve all of the other difficult developmental stuff they face.  Children need to have the experience of their basic needs being met and be able to have the expectation that they will continue to be met into the future. 

Again, modeling is part of this.  Parents who model such stability and the practices that allow such stability are teaching their children the values and skills that will help them achieve such stability in their own lives.   But, primarily this is a parenting competency because it provides the stability children need to aide in their development.

Interesting trend here isn’t there?  Many of the parenting competencies don’t have to do directly with interacting with their kids, but more about how parents manage their own lives.  I think you will be surprised that next month’s competency, # 7, is so far down the list.  It is often one of the first things that come to mind when people think about parenting skills.

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