Connecting with Parents, with Dr. Judith Locke

“To have a good relationship with your child is extremely important, but not such a good relationship that you are describing your child as your best friend.” (Dr. Judith Locke) Is there any relationship, any connection, more vital, more critical in a young girl’s life than the one she has with her parents on the journey from girlhood to womanhood? Yet, is there any connection more fraught and fragile? Parenting a girl as she moves along the developmental path from dependence to independence is not a job for the faint of heart. There has never been a time when so much guidance has been available to parents, yet neither has there ever been a time when parents have struggled more to get parenting “right,” if there even is such a thing. This episode of The Connected Girl embraces the topic of maintaining a healthy connection to a girl as she becomes her own person, walking in the world in ways that are sometimes hard for parents to understand, making mistakes and choices that make her parents shake their heads and make her roll her eyes. Listen in as host Trudy Hall invites Dr. Judith Locke, a clinical psychologist and researcher from Australia, and the author of The Bonsai Child and The Bonsai Student, to share her theory about modern parenting. She posits that even though parents are spending more time than ever parenting their children, the self-esteem and resilience in their children is not reflecting that investment. What gives? She has a theory that makes a great deal of sense and some advice to go along with it. The girls voices you will hear give heartwarming testimony to the reality that girls truly want and need their parents in their lives. Resources: The Bonsai Child:https://www.bonsaichild.com/ The Bonsai Student:https://www.bonsaichild.com/#about-student-book International Coalition of Girls Schools: https://girlsschools.org/ Tell Our Story :https://girlsschools.org/advocacy/blog/2022/07/13/the-icgs-community-poem/