Photo: Penguin Random House
There are so many things to worry about as a parent. Are they being challenged enough at school" What is Minecraft doing to their brains" Are they hanging out with the right people" Will be able to find a job" The list goes on and on. We worry because we want to be the best parents we can be and we want our kids to be the best they can be. And sometimes we have clear ideas of what that should look like. But, as psychologist Shefali Tsabary argues, our best intentions might be backfiring. Those expectations we set can cause harm and disillusionment. Parents, she says, need to recognize their kids for who they actually are. Rather than trying to mould our kids in a certain way, we need to let them truly express themselves. In her new book, The Awakened Family: A Revolution in Parenting, Tsabary suggests ways in which we can control our expectations while raising confident kids. In this follow-up to her New York Times bestseller The Conscious Parent, she uses Eastern and Western psychology to further explore the idea of self-evaluation as a means to break down the barriers of traditional parenting. Tsabary has been featured on Oprah?s SuperSoul Sunday and Oprah?s Lifeclass, and has spoken at TEDx, Kellogg Business School and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. We spoke to her to find out how parents can become more empathetic.
Why do you think this approach strikes a chord with so many parents"

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