Excerpts From - My Goodness: My Kids
Cultivating Decency in a Dangerous World
No Curfews, No Timeouts—No Violence, No Drugs (Book) (Spring 2008)
By Nesta A. Aharoni
- "My kids didn't need to smoke or drink to fit in. They delighted in not fitting in."
- "Instead of my kids saying, 'Mom, everybody's doing it,' they were and are proud to say, 'Mom, nobody's doing this.'"
- "Marrying my husband was not the luck of the draw. It was a decision I made, and it has affected the moral fiber of my children."
- "I dropped the idea of a curfew. I added the idea that my children's behavior today would define their tomorrow."
- "All of your value-instilling techniques can come to naught if your children choose to hang out with cohorts who do not live by your family's standards."
- "I was never concerned whether my children got into Stanford or Yale. Rather, I was dedicated to the notion that my children would attend the college they deserved to attend."
- Apologies remove defensiveness and turn potential arguments into open and honest communication."
- "R-rated movies, with parental guidance and instruction, have contributed more to my children's character than yet another silly summer show."
- "Praise that is given when no praise has been earned can create a false sense of self that can tumble like a house of cards when it is challenged."
- "I remember times I punished my children—many times. But my memory is not of sullen expressions, angry voices, slamming doors, or high-pitched yells. Instead, it is often of negotiation, creativity, cooperation—and even laughter."
- "My choice to discipline my toddlers was actually a choice not to discipline my teenagers."
- "Of course we want our children to be professionally successful, well liked, financially independent, and happy. But the world will benefit most from children who are raised primarily to be good.