Boss, manager or consultant? When you think about your role as a parent, what approach do you believe is most effective in raising self-driven, happy and well adjusted children, adolescents and young adults?

In their new book, The Self Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives, Stixrud and Johnson discuss the importance of thinking of yourself as your child’s consultant to increase their sense of “agency” or feeling of control of their own destiny.

This requires less micromanaging and offering more trust in their own decision making.

To learn more about this approach and see if it’s something that could work for you in your parenting, check out NPR’s interview with the book’s authors.

Michelle Rathburn, LAMFT

mrathburn@growcounseling.com