As a parent, there are stages our children will go thru that leave us rolling our eyes, or throwing our
arms up in the air in surrender.
Similar to complimenting your children, letting them know
you are proud of them is important as well. There are going to be times that you might have to search really hard for
one thing you are proud of, when all you can see is this "alien" that has taken over your child's body, who raids
your refrigerator regularly, leaves 45 shirts to be washed in a 7 day period, mopes around claiming boredom everyday, and
has replaced your child's bedroom with trash, papers, music cd's, dirty dishes, seperated shoes, and piles and piles of clothes
on the floor!
Find something in their personality that you are proud of-their friendliness,
their compassion, their motivational drive(obviously excluding their bedroom!), or something else!
Saying "I'm proud of you" is a badge of approval on him or her as a human being-from the people it means
the most from. It may surprise you when they decide to try harder in other areas because their efforts are noticed.
Rest assured, if ALL they hear is the areas they need to improve on, you may end up with a child turned
adult who does nothing because they "can't do anything right anyway".
