In part two of our Parenting Pathway series Mentoring and Modeling Approach to Parenting, Dr. Andi Thacker, Associate Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and licensed professional counselor, talks about parenting and raising girls in our modern culture.
The natural temptation in parenting today is to create a path for our kids rather than preparing our children for the path life presents. We need to embrace the fears and struggles our girls face and encourage them to be bold in their own resolution. It is normal for our girls to have fear about everyday things. It is normal for our girls to have anxiety (“anxiety” meaning something they are ruminating about and cannot put away). But if we remove all the obstacles causing fear and anxiety, kids never develop the problem-solving skills they need to be successful and mentally healthy adults.
Never do for your child what she can do for herself!
Girls need relationships and are hard-wired to desire community. This is the ideal opportunity to model what healthy relationships with others look like. Particularly, model what it looks like to have a relationship with Christ. Let them see you pray, read your Bible, and journal. Also take the opportunity to introduce your daughter to people who share her interests and might be good at things you are not good at. The mentoring model is allowing other people you trust to have influence in your daughter’s life. We have the world at our fingertips, but we often don’t teach our girls how to live well. Use mentors to show them the way.
Additional Resources
- Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul, by Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughn
- Anatomy of the Soul, by Dr. Curt Thompson
- Soul of Shame, by Dr. Curt Thompson
- Raising Worry Free Girls, by Sissy Goff
- Braver, Stronger, Smarter: A Girl’s Guide to Overcoming Worry and Anxiety, by Sissy Goff
- Are My Kids on Track? by Sissy Goff
- Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls, by Leonard Sax
- Parenting from the Inside Out, by Dan Siegel
- God’s Design for Sex, by Stan Jones
