Woodbury Reports, Inc.
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Are You Ever Done Parenting?

Erick Lauber, PhD, President of Life Framing
International joined us on The Woodbury Report,
Tuesday, June 17, 2014, at 12:00pm Pacific Time.

June 17, 2014

Are you ever really done parenting? Our guest today on The Woodbury Report, Dr. Erick Lauber, PhD, tends to believe the answer is no. Or as the host of this show, Lon Woodbury put it, "Once a parent, always a parent."

Dr. Lauber, father of three, along with his wife, whom he credits for doing such a great job in co-parenting his children, explained that parents need to step back and look at the situation and ask themselves "what do you want down the road for your kids? What does a healthy kid in their 20's or 30's look like? What do you see as their well-being?"

As Dr. Lauber puts it, well-being is a concept or category developed over the years that determines what makes people happy or feel satisfied. Those categories can be broken down into five parts:

Career well-being: Do you have a meaningful job or work? Do you enjoy your co-workers? Does your job play up on your strengths? Help your child to explore their own strengths and weaknesses and let them know not to pick something just for the money. Too much emphasis is put on career goals and not enough on the other areas of well-being. Encourage your kids to explore different careers.

Social well-being: It really comes down to your relationships with others. You need good friends and you need friends who can fill all the different parts of you, you can't rely on one person to fill all of your needs.

Financial well-being: As parents, we want to help our kids gain financial security and to be able to manage their money. It is more important for them to feel like they are secure. We need to feel financially secure and are fearful of feeling "poor". What is important also is to not compare ourselves with our peers.

Physical well-being: We want our kids to be healthy and happy. Many parents struggle with this one, with diet, video games and electronics, the lure of drugs and alcohol. The fact is, this one impacts all of the other well-beings. Self-discipline in building your own structure and diet, getting enough exercise.

Community well-being: Volunteer, attend events in the community and your participation in these events is a way of giving back. Through church or Habitat for Humanity, just giving back through some kind of community service.

Parents need to be role models with these five principles. Are you covering or participating in all five well-beings yourselves? Or are you just picking one or two, or sporadic in your own well-beings? The role parents need to model is hope and optimism. It is so important to encourage your children. As a parent you can always do something better and it is never too late to change. Be a lifelong learner and let your kids see you doing so.

Erick Lauber, PhD is president of Life Framing International and a digital journalism faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is also in charge of leadership training and research at the Mid-Atlantic Research and Training Institute and has developed and still teaches the undergraduate Leadership Academy at IUP. In addition, Dr. Lauber is a journalist and column author with over 60 published columns in national magazines.

To contact Dr. Erick Lauber
724-464-7460
info@ericklauber.com
www.lifeframing.org

Listen to the full interview here: Are You Ever Done Parenting?
Also available in Podcast
Please join us Tuesdays on The Woodbury Report at K4HD.com - hosted by Lon Woodbury live at 12:00 pm Pacific Time