The Well-Meaning, Bad Parent

NPR Radio program Fresh Air recently hosted psychologist Richard Weissbourd in a program called "The Well-Meaning, Bad Parent." Weissbourd talks about the complexities of raising "moral" children and how well-intentioned, thoughtful parenting can produce the opposite of intended results. One of the things he touches on is parents' tendency to "overpraise" our kids, thereby diminishing the value of praise and reducing kids' internal motivation to achieve and/or take risks. Fresh Air's site has an excerpt; you can also listen to the audio podcast on the same page--it's only about 15 minutes long. Thought-provoking stuff!

-- Admin