FLAWED

How We Can Use Our Fears, Flaws, and Conflicts to Raise Empathic, Connected and Resilient Kids

Create your parent-digm shift.

THE GIFT OF BEING A FLAWED PARENT TM

We all mess up. Sometimes, we feel messed up. Many of us worry that we are “messing up” these small precious people too. But, there’s an entirely different, deeply hopeful and redemptive way of looking at our flaws, our failures and our disconnections.

Instead of seeing our so-called flaws as defects, we can use our anger, fear, shame, self-doubt and conflicts to actually become more inspired, peaceful, and connected parents from the inside-out.

All site content and photographs are copyrighted material. Copyright 2009 Lu Hanessian. All rights reserved. Photos by Lisa Trakis for WYSH, LLC. No part of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission from Lu Hanessian.

We may see our angry reactions as welcome clues for our own growth. We become more curious about why-to instead of how-to. Less focused on those “provocations” we once perceived from our children. And more curious about our own story.

When we understand the stories that drive our reactions, we can use our fears to see our defenses from a more compassionate inner framework. We can free ourselves from the patterns that keep us from deep connection with ourselves and our kids.

The gift of being a flawed parent is that we can raise kids who will not be bound by our own fears, who are not afraid of conflict, of daring to ask questions both of themselves and others in order to connect, because they are learning a process of self-understanding and empathy that will pave the pathway to resilient and abiding relationships.

We’ll look at the science of connection, disconnection and repair, and gain a deeper understanding of why we are “supposed to” make mistakes and flaws in order to heal our old stories and free our kids to be human. We’ll discover why resilience is not about creating a tough skin to cope, but rather about learning to turn negative emotional experiences and affect into positive ones in the context of relationship--as early as infancy.