Mental Health Week in Review: May 11-18

It’s been a big week for family relationships in Mental Health this week as we looked at further ways of setting healthy limits for your children in Setting Healthy Boundaries for Your Children (3) and Setting Healthy Boundaries for Your Children (4). These two blogs complement the first to in this series when we talked about how it is important for parents to teach their children that they can, in fact, deal very well with the word “No”. In fact, it is imperative to their future health and happiness that they do learn how to deal maturely with the N-word. … Continue reading

Setting Healthy Boundaries for Your Children (4)

The process of setting healthy boundaries in your child starts very early in life. By the time a child can say “No” he or she has long grasped the concept of personal boundaries and so it is the responsibility of the parent to let their child know one very important concept: They can’t have everything. It can be hard to say “no” to a pair of beseeching eyes but it is up to you, the parent, to be the strong one in this parent-child relationship into which you have entered. It is so easy to fall into the trap of … Continue reading

Setting Healthy Boundaries for Your Children (3)

In the previous article in this series we looked at the most common violation of childhood boundaries: that of discussing adult issues such as financial difficulties and marital problems with your child. The other common boundary problem involves the physical boundary violation of childhood sexual abuse. So common is this phenomenon that, by the age of 18, over 70% of females report some level of sexual abuse. This issue is covered in several articles which can be found under the category of Sexual Harassment and Abuse. Today’s article focuses on more subtle boundary violations, in particular the inability by some … Continue reading

Setting Healthy Boundaries for Your Children (2)

The most important gift you can give your child is a healthy set of boundaries. It is the ultimate gift of love, even though in setting boundaries, your child will probably tell you that you don’t love them. They may even tell you they hate you. But that is okay. The problem that many parents have in parenting their children is that they try to be friends with their kids. This is not possible. Parents and children are not peers and therefore cannot be true friends. That comes later, when the child matures into an adult and the parent-child relationship … Continue reading