Family-Ing

Family-Ing

Using Effective Practical Parenting ideas, we will build your custom home. I call this process Family-Ing. Family-Ing is the process through which we will build our family life, construct the tenor of interaction and design life with minor children.

I’m moving beyond GOYBP into the ideas and actions needed to create a joyful, productive life with children. My upcoming book uses the metaphor of building a custom home. We’ll work through 3 phases:

Planning
Building
Home Improvement

Each phase has corresponding actions, “work”, ideas and principles. It’s a comprehensive approach to family life. Effective Practical Parenting is not designed for you to look up “biting” and apply the answer. EPP is designed for you to know that some kids bite, why, how to prevent biting incidents and how to respond when they do happen. Family-Ing also ensures that the parental response is reasonable because the parent has addressed their own issues.

EPP has 3 levels:

1) Foundational

This is where you Get Your Own Act Together. In our home metaphor, it’s where you make the plans, visit the architects, check local codes and buy the property. Here, we break ground.

2) Proactive

This is where you Get Your Family’s Act Together. Here we are proactive about issues, mitigating and preventing them. In our home, we are building the structure for happy living. “Providing the structure” is where we create the blueprints, pour the foundation and begin building.

3) Responsive

This is Getting The Act Back Together. When a child (or adult) presents challenging behavior, this is what we do in immediate response. It’s here where issues of ongoing Home Improvement are the focus. We make decorating, minor structural changes. We change the way we live in the house according to need, age and changing daily experience.

Foundational EPP includes all the elements necessary in order to build a home life in which all members have the best opportunity to thrive. Foundational activities include developing a cohesive family plan, getting yourselves (the parents) in order, establishing excellent self care, and knowledge building.

Proactive EPP includes a variety of ways to prevent and mitigate common childhood moods, challenges and behaviors. Families practicing Proactive EPP learn how to build connection, establish rhythm, create ritual and cultivate a lifestyle that creates the family tone and dynamic they desire. “Proactive” is a term that’s become popular in the last couple of decades in the business world. It implies action that make things better in advance. Proactive parenting tools make things better in advance.

Responsive EPP is where I’ll offer the “what to do when” tools. You’ll find a predictable list of behaviors and corresponding solutions. Thankfully, Responsive EPP is not constrained by a formulaic approach. Responsive discipline is effective, specific, creative.

You’ll improve your parenting if click on “responsive” and find the behavioral issue of the day. However, you’ll improve your life if you read the entire site, beginning to end, and begin applying what you learn.