15 Comments
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Danielle Wilkie's avatar

It’s so helpful to see a real-life account of this in action. Curfews are just ahead for us!

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Katharine Strange's avatar

was coming here to say the same thing!

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Emily Edlynn's avatar

Thank you! And now you’re totally prepared ha ha.

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Debbie Sorensen's avatar

Helpful parenting guidance, as always, Emily! And I LOVE your reading list. I love the few of these I've read, and now I have more good ones to add to my TBR list. Thank you!

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Emily Edlynn's avatar

Oh good! You’ll have to let me know what you end up reading - although I know you already have a worthy stack of TBR 😂

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Debbie Sorensen's avatar

That's the problem! So many books to add to the list, it's like like one step forward, two steps back. I keep telling myself that when I'm an empty nester in a few years I'll finally make substantial progress on it. Ha!

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Emily Edlynn's avatar

That’s my plan too 😊

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RG she/her's avatar

great work Emily. love your real life experiences and your professional expertise x

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Meg M's avatar

Thank you Emily! One year behind you in the parenting game so this is suuuuper helpful!

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Emily Edlynn's avatar

Im so glad Meg!

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Wendy Chen's avatar

I have a 5 year old, and I've supported her autonomy since she was maybe 3 or 4. I strive to give her choices (whenever possible). She's actually learned to negotiate with me. Nothing as major as staying out late and curfew yet, but she's negotiating watching YouTube (with my supervision) or watching Bluey when she wakes up in the morning and giving me time to sleep in. And you're right, it is about parenting smarter, not harder. I'm so glad to see someone else with an older child paving the path with autonomy-supporting parenting!

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Emily Edlynn's avatar

I promise this is paving the way for an easier time implementing curfew in your future! One reason our interaction went as well as it did is the years before of nurturing both her autonomy and our relationship. Brava to you for your autonomy-supportive start!

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Wendy Chen's avatar

Honestly, my daughter didn't really give me a choice LOL

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Emily Edlynn's avatar

Ha! Same here!

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Jo-Ann Finkelstein, PhD's avatar

Love this Emily!

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