I have a daughter who is 2-1/2 years old and very rambuncious!! She's up at 7am and would go through the night if I didn't have her on a regular bed time schedule - she's the Energizer Bunny's twin.

      One thing I wanted to do as a parent was to have what my parents gave me - love, freedom and tons of responsibility. I had two younger siblings - who were more like my kids. I never realized how different my family life was until I got to high school. All my friends couldn't believe that I actually liked my parents and liked doing things with them. This was a foreign concept to 99% of my friends!! I wasn't the greatest kid but I always had the stability of knowing that no matter what - my parents could and would help me to handle FOR MYSELF - life. They were very good at that and I wanted my daughter to have the same thing.

     For the first year of my daughter's life I kind of "took it as it came" and when she started walking and talking I knew I wasn't going to be able to get by with just that. I picked up a book by L. Ron Hubbard called Child Dianetics and started reading it - it totally BLEW my mind and I was almost in tears by the end of the book because here it was, right in front of me- a manual on kids!! I couldn't believe it - I thought I was just going to have to grin and bear it for the next 18 years until she moved out of the house.

     Applying this book changed my thinking totally on children - it actually got me from a "I'm the mom now do what I say, do this, do that" way to asking my kid her input in what was happening to her as a human being and even though she still has to do stuff she doesn't want to - she is more willing to help out and be a member of the family because she knows that she is a part of that group and her opinion counts.

     That makes a real difference when someone wants you to go places and do this and that if they ASK you - aren't you more willing and happier to do something for someone when they say "hey would you mind helping me do this"? then if they said "pick that up now"! It's a great feeling to be able to give my daughter that kind of respect because I get it back ten fold!