Confident Parenting: It’S Not Rocket Science

2018 Becky Crowe. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/26/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3877-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-3878-2 (e)

Cover Illustration credits to Audrey Crowe

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Confident Parenting

(It’s Not Rocket Science)

By: Becky Crowe

To my husband John: for all of your love and support through my career changes and the bills that come with them. Special thanks for doing all of the cooking and supplying the recipes!

To my family (both sides): for providing so many children with ample opportunities from which to build, but by no means perfect, my parenting skills.

To my beautiful girls: for your ideas which added so much to this book and for your support as I hesitated to publish. Special thanks to Audrey for the cover design and Jeanine Boutiere (a.k.a. ‘Ms.B’ the art teacher) for helping her.

To Patrick Blackburn, my editor (and Michelle Evard Moses for recommending him!) Patrick you have no idea how much I appreciate your candor and support. I truly appreciate how patient you were with me!

Table of contents

It Really Isn’t Rocket Science

The early years

The Practice Child

What Others Think

Suggested Musts

Character

Girl Stuff

You Have To Let Them Fail… To A Degree

Experience and Exposure

Take A Break

In a Nutshell

The Future

Preface

Writing this book was a family effort. I would write sections as we drove to and from vacation and we would talk about what was going into it. John, Catherine and Audrey all had a say in what I should write about and added many anecdotes. They were my initial editors! Without them, I would have no grounds for writing this. Without them, I would not be the person I am today.

At the end of each chapter you will find a recipe. These are some of our favorite recipes and I thought that you might enjoy trying them with your family.

Chapter 1

It Really Isn’t Rocket Science

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

For the most part, this book is common sense. But what I’ve learned over the years is that not everybody comes equipped with the common sense parenting gene. Many times I have heard parents state that they wish their kids came with instructions -- especially for the teenage years. This book may be the closest thing you get to a set of instructions for raising your children.

You may or may not agree with what I have to say or how we have chosen to raise our kids. How you do it is up to you. You can choose to follow in our footsteps or you can choose to go your own way. In fact, you will probably do a little bit of my way and a little bit of your own way. That’s how parenting is: trial and error, use what you liked about how your parents raised you and discard what you disliked. So you’ll do the same with this book. It’s O.K. You’ll develop your own parenting style in no time.

Right now you need to make a decision. Think about your philosophy in regards to raising children. If your philosophy involves raising children to live off the system or perhaps plan to have an au pair raise your children please go to Chapter 35.

If your philosophy involves raising your children to be ethical, responsible, independent, and productive members of society, please continue to chapter 2. Keep in mind that this book is not based on clinical studies but on my own personal experiences. I have read many child psychology articles and could cite them in this book but I choose to only cite what I feel strongly about. Why? Because how we have chosen to raise our children is not based on research or what Dr. Spock or anyone else said was the right thing to do. Just like most