#activeresistance

To me, Positive Parenting isn't just this one thing I'll only use when I get older and have kids. (Spoiler alert: I'm not actually planning to have kids.) It goes much beyond that. For me, even as I am not a parent myself, I often find myself in the role of a parent, of a mentor, as I try and teach and educate others on what they're doing wrong. And so when I first heard of positive parenting, I had the insight to equate the role I had as a teacher (in my few friendly relationships) to being similar to that of a parent. 

Boy was I glad I did... I recognized I was doing so many things wrong with that approach. I realized I had no idea that I had no idea what I was doing, as those nescients (search nescience), both in general and pertaining to a specific topic, are bound to do. I realized that I was focusing too much on control... and not on actually teaching them... on leading them... I was sequestering them and I didn't even realize it. This new knowledge gave me the means to realize I needed to let go of some of my control, and instead give it to those I was teaching, so they themselves could learn what to do instead of being given the answers. The most ironic part of all of that was that I believed (and still do) that just giving people the answers is not the way to teach others--one should teach them how to do so for themselves. 

For these reasons, I suggest that even if you aren't a parent, you look into positive parenting. There are plenty of things about this topic that can help non-parents, especially those who either like to or find themselves teaching or even listening to others in any way, shape, or form. But it is not limited to those, for it also reveals quite a bit about how some of the cultural expectations we are raised with are wrong, and what we should really be doing.