Counsellors Corner 

How to Be a Supportive Parent

A key aspect of supportive parenting is active listening. Give your child your full attention, avoid interrupting, and reflect back what they say to show understanding. Acknowledge their feelings without judgment or immediately offering solutions, which helps them feel heard and accepted.

Over-parenting is overprotecting, overdirecting and doing a lot of handholding. Over parenting can damage healthy development and lead to low self-esteem and high co-dependence.

Over-parenting is...

• Giving lots of reminders & warnings: "You can't do that. You're too small."
• Over-perfecting: "What happened on this test? You usually get A's in this class."
• Removing personal responsibility: "Let me check your answers one more time."
• Projecting your goals: "You've got to try out for soccer! I loved it when I was your age!"

A better alternative is supportive parenting, trusting that your child can do hard things and by giving them space and support. 

Supportive parenting is...

• Age-appropriate guidance: "What's your plan on climbing down?"
• Focusing on progress: "Everyone slips up sometimes. Let's brainstorm ideas you can try next time."
• Allowing natural consequences: "I trust you did your best. And if you made mistakes, that's how you learn."
• Helping them set their own goals: "I loved soccer growing up. What sport would you be interested in trying?"

The goal of supportive parenting is to instill confidence in your child and to equip them to handle hard things in the future.