Identifying Your Strengths as a Parent

What’s your ideal image of the perfect parent?

Is it a mom pulling fresh-baked cookies out of the oven right as her children come home from school?

Is it a dad in the yard with a couple of baseball mitts and a ball, inviting his son to come out and play?

Or maybe you imagine someone who’s never too busy, who never raises their voice, and who never gets annoyed or distracted.

Authors Brandon and Analyn Miller remember a season of their parenting when nothing seemed to get them closer to their ideal vision of parenting despite access to an abundance of advice and parenting resources. They eventually realized that they were working against their own strengths.

Their solution was to evaluate their parenting strengths and weaknesses and find approaches that worked for them.

The Millers say that at the core of every child are two questions:

“Do you love me?”
“Will you let me do whatever I want?”

The first question requires love. The second question requires authority. When parents are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, they can show appropriate love and establish healthy boundaries with their children. This approach helps provide an environment of trust and structure that helps kids succeed.

Brandon and Analyn are guests on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Identifying Your Strengths as a Parent” to discuss “strength-based parenting” and to help you take your parenting to the next level. Listen to our conversation on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or take us with you on our free phone app.

Brandon and Analyn Miller are authors and speakers who specialize in coaching moms and dads in strength-based parenting. Their book Incredible Parent: Discover Your Parenting Strengths and Raise Your Kids with Confidence is available for a gift of any amount. And when you help Focus on the Family today with a gift, your donation will be DOUBLED for twice the impact in helping others through this ministry. Our thanks to generous donors who’ve made that possible. For more information, click here.

We’ve also got a free parenting assessment for you at our website. It will quickly give you an overview of how your family is doing in several key areas. It also offers suggestions for improving the relationships in your home.