Solid and Gentle Boundaries = Joyful Children?!.

Black: parenting from the paradigm of the recent past—children are little adults.

White: parenting from the New Age paradigm that children are Holy…

If we are only granted 2 categories, these could be them…so we meet suppressed, obedient children, more on the fearful side of the emotional rainbow…or we meet unruly, unbounded children, more on the angry side of the spectrum (and really most children swing back and forth between these two—as do most parents’ parenting styles).

What turns us all on are joyful children and neither Black nor White seem to produce this ilk. Joyful children live in the middle of this pendular swing. They are held within parameters set by the adult community to which they belong, this takes the fear back many notches (children are small, vulnerable and not fully emotionally, spiritually or physically developed remember) and they are recognized as whole—not grown up, not demi-Gods, just whole. This brings back the anger many notches as it actually is quite infuriating to have holy expectations laid upon us, or to be expected to be all-wise all of the time. Wholeness and perfection are not the same…