Jewish Life Digital Edition October 2015 | Page 52

SERIES

PROJECT SHALOM

Do as I DO
Some of the fundamentals of a job that comes
without any training

EVERY PARENT ASPIRES TO BRING OUT GREATNESS
and the true potential of his child. The
main challenge and the real art of parenting is creating both the optimal relationship and environment for your children to
grow up in that will allow them to become
the best they can be through discovering
and manifesting their talents, gifts, and
the unique brilliance with which each individual is endowed. The key to great parenting lies not in the techniques, but rather
the kind of person you are and the quality
of relationships you foster with your child
and the people around you.
Cultivating children is like cultivating
trees. When you cultivate a tree, no matter
how good you are at pruning and shaping, if
you haven’t got the tree in the correct envi-

48 JEWISH LIFE ■ ISSUE 89

ronment, it will not thrive. If you do all the
right things too fastidiously and too intensely then you can end up creating a bonsai. In human terms, you can say that giving
too much supervision and protection deprives the child of the opportunity to de