I’m My Child’s Friend AND I’m Still in Control

    The art of being a parent is to guide your children through life and to look out for their best interest; but contrary to what most believe, there is no parent-child relationship without some level of friendship. With that said, you MUST be your child’s friend in order for your relationship with them to work.   However, in the African American culture, the overall consensus is that the parent should absolutely NOT be her child’s friend. The assumption is that we are stricter and less tolerant when it comes to how we raise our children and that is undoubtedly contributed to the fact the a vast majority of black children are raised in single parent homes and the mother is the primary parent – so we’re often have tough rules in place to “save” them from the world. When Natty and I were growing up our parent’s didn’t really believe in being “friends”. Children had their place and it was certainly not to befriend a parent. We raised our children a little different, but we still have healthy boundaries. In this episode we talk about some of those boundaries and how we’ve fostered a healthy friendship with our children while still maintaining respect and authority in the relationship. We both agree that being your child’s friend is an essential and necessary part of preparing them to function in a society that can often be cruel and unfair.   We provide some clarification on how being your child’s friend does not take away from your ability to effectively parent or discipline and how fear based parent does not benefit you or your child. Tune in now to find out how you can be your child’s friend and still maintain your parenting integrity.  And when you’ve soaked up all of this goodness, hop on over to  Shades of Strong and leave us a voice message telling us what you thought about the episode. OR Head on over to FACEBOOK or TWITTER, or INSTAGRAM @shadesofstrong and join the conversation.  If you’re tweeting with us, be sure to use the hashtag #shadesofstrong. Happy listening peeps!   SUBSCRIBE. RATE. REVIEW   If you enjoyed this or previous episodes, head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you’re moved to do so, kindly leave us a rating and review.  Not sure how to do that?  Click HEREfor a quick how to. Other Ways to subscribe to the Shades of Strong Podcast: Click here to subscribe via Google Podcasts Click here to subscribe via Stitcher   Click here to subscribe via Tunein Click here to subscribe via Spotify Click here to subscribe via e-mail Click here to subscribe via RSS