Emotional Intelligence For Dummies®

Chapter 15. Parenting with Emotional Intelligence

In This Chapter

• Understanding what makes emotionally unintelligent parents

• Making sure that your partner and you are on the same parenting page

• Staying calm when dealing with your child

• Managing your child by using your emotional skills

• Dealing constructively with your teenager

• Weathering the teen-years storm

You may have heard the old line that your child doesn't come with a manual (or a warranty). Maybe that's why you can find hundreds of books on parenting at your local bookstore.

In this chapter, I don't provide a complete course on how to raise your kids. But I do talk about some aspects of emotional intelligence that can help you with whatever parenting manual you choose to follow.

One of the most common problems in parenting involves the two principal players — the parents — not sharing the same child-rearing approach. Another widespread issue is the lack of consistency in applying whatever approaches you do use. This chapter explores some universal aspects of parenting that can help you with the monumental task of raising your kids.

How Intelligent People Become Emotionally Unintelligent Parents

I've often been asked why you don't have to take a test before you become a parent. Although the questioner is only half serious, he usually has in mind some kind of intelligence test, thinking that some people just aren't smart enough to know how to parent.

If intelligence was any guarantee of good parenting, this approach might make some sense. ...