What an outstanding article on D.B. Johnson in the January 3rd issue of the Globe! I want to cut it out and frame it and put it in my waiting room, but I’m teaching a parenting class beginning Sunday and I’m thinking maybe I can find your article online, do a little cut and paste (giving you full credit, of course!) and make up copies for all of the parents.
This article is the best illustration that I’ve seen in a long time, expressing the importance of not enabling children or adults unless you want to be responsible for them the rest of your life.
I wish I had learned these principles when my kids were small. I did too much for them and tried to save them from making mistakes, and I learned that they will continue making mistakes and not learning from them well into their adult years.
Twenty years ago I went to Snohomish High School’s PAC to hear a speaker that someone insisted I needed to go hear. As I walked in, the tension was palpable, yuppies with shirt sleeves rolled up and some missing their ties. But H. Stephen Glenn, creator of the Developing Capable Young People parent education program, stepped out and really spoke to the people, and it touched my heart to reflect on my own childhood and all that had gone wrong in our dysfunctional home, and I departed tearfully. I thought, I have to have this! And I looked at the setup table, but the only fliers were for a training for parenting educators, presenters to give classes to other parents. It was expensive, but I determined to do it and the next day called and got half off as scholarship. I was able to come up with the rest, and that training changed my life. Now I pass it on to other parents. And my five kids? They are all at various stages of learning from their mistakes. They started out quite controlling with their children, and have learned somewhat from the updated example I have tried to leave behind.
What Mr. Johnson had to say touched on several fine points of the parenting programs in which I am trained. I loved your article.
Skosh Jacobsen, Marysville
