Becoming a Power Parent: Seven Guiding Principles for Creating a Healthy Family

American families are in crisis. The evidence comes from the plethora of statistics produced by dozens of organizations interested in the welfare of our children. There is hope for parents who are determined to create healthy children and families despite the forces working against them. As a child psychologist in clinical practice for almost three decades, I have learned that parents are hungry for information on how to raise their children in such a way that they don't become one of the negative statistics we too often hear about in the media. BECOMING A POWER PARENT: SEVEN GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR CREATING A HEALTHY FAMILY presents the steps parents and caretakers can take to achieve their goal. The process is based upon natural laws-those accepted, expected or innate rules or directives used by healthy families that are not unlike the natural laws that regulate all life forms and systems.

When parents are asked what principles of life they most value, they cite freedom of choice, liberty, justice, sovereignty, peace of mind, and equality. These are all concepts of natural law and are our self-evident rights as human beings. Our children have these same rights.

As parents, we have certain powers that are directly related to the natural principles that form the foundation of safety and happiness within our unit. BECOMING A POWER PARENT is a hybrid of ideas from natural laws, which are self-evident, well-researched psychological principles of human behavior, and from my experiences as a child psychologist. Its purpose is to present these ideas in a simple, concise, and meaningful way . . . one that provides readers with the knowledge and means to construct and develop-or deconstruct and redevelop-a family that understands and values safety, harmony, health, and happiness and can teach and perpetuate the positive results generation after generation.

We live in a complex and challenging world; technological advances have changed our ability as parents to limit or have knowledge of everything our children see, hear, read or experience and how they react to these stimuli. We need to become better trained and equipped to teach the value systems we hold dear and to show our children through example. If we fail in this mission, our children may, over time, intentionally or inadvertently "alter or abolish" what we currently experience as family. Someday, their new family units may be absent the principles that lead to the "safety and happiness" of their children . . . our grandchildren.