Week 11

This week we discussed fathers being involved in their children's lives and how it affects them, and needs. I would like to discuss needs in this post. My professor quoted someone in saying, "You can never get enough of what you don't need, because what you don't need can not satisfy you." Parents responses should be needs based, not behavior based. There are five needs that Michael Popkin talks about in his book, "Active teens". The first is contact and belonging; The second is power; Third is protection. Fourth is withdrawal, and fifth challenge. Everyone needs some of each of these needs. The most common need is contact and belonging. So I'm going to mostly talk about that. If your child is misbehaving, a lot of the time it is because they are not getting enough contact and belonging. A way to help your child with this need is to offer affection freely and have them contribute. You can offer affection freely by doing things as simple as giving them a hug or patting them on the back. By asking them to do chores or choose what to have for dinner it helps them to feel like they are a part of the family and they belong. It's a necessity for children to have contact and feel like they belong.