Mission Statement and Principles

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.
—C. Everett Koop

The Mission of the Parenting Initiative Is to:

• Raise awareness of parents and the general public to the below principles.

• Assist parents to learn and develop the skills necessary to raise responsible, respectful, and capable children.

• Assist parents in identifying their family's and their child's purpose in life.

• Raise awareness that we can all be positive, productive, and effective regardless of the situation.

• Assist children and teens to recognize that they always have a choice in how they think, speak and act, and that there are natural consequences for our actions.

• Assist children and teens to develop the awareness and skills to be respectful, responsible children, teens and citizens.

Basic Principles:

• Parenting is one of the most awesome responsibilities in the world at this time.

• Good parenting is possible, doable and learnable.

• Well-behaved, responsible, respectful children/teens are no accident.

• Children are capable of responsible behavior beginning in infancy.

• Children have an innate desire to serve.

• A child's desire for more and more "things" is most frequently learned by example at home.

• Children must be challenged to become self-sufficient human beings.

• Wanting to be our child's friend or wanting our child to like us is a barrier to effective parenting.

• By providing structure and discipline for children, parents are preparing these children for the required self-discipline of adulthood.

• Children can, at a very young age, choose (and therefore change) both their behavior and their attitude.

• Parents have the task and responsibility of providing their children with meaningful consequences for inappropriate behavior.

• By assuring that children understand the consequences of the choices they make and of their attitudes, parents are preparing the children for responsible lives.

• To "enable" a child's negative behavior is to "disable" the maturing adult.

• Each child is born with a purpose for his/her life.

• Helping a child identify purpose (both individually and as a family) helps him/her to gain focus and significantly increases the child's creative potential.

• It is possible to stay positive and effective in the midst of difficult parenting tasks.