The value of Good Parenting

during my third week in paediatrics, i have been doing adolescent medicine. i have been dealing with a lot of patients with eating disorders, chronic illnesses and somatic pain. one of the main things that jumped out at me this week was how important the parent's role is in not only the recovery of their kids but in the worsening of the diseases and problems. in many situations that lack of parenting enables the kids in their problems. many of them were around 12 years old. some were school refuser's who have refused to go to school for months, even up to a year. can you imagine that? and the parents allowed it. same with the kids with anorexia. at 12 my parents would have never allowed me to refuse to go to school, or to not eat. seriously i had no choice in either matter. i was the child, they the parents, i had absolutely no option, no say in the matter. maaaaaaaan.....there is a big cultural difference with how my parents parented and what i have seen in the western world. now don't get me wrong, i understand anorexia is a disease and i treat it as such, i'm mainly talking about the role of parents in the recovery process where it is important for them to be parents and lay down the law so to speak. pretty much forcing the kids to eat. because they have not been parenting well, a lot of the work, in the recovery period is family therapy and working with the parents to get them to take on that responsibility. so many more things made an impact on me, but its too much to even really think about , much less talk about. though i do appreciate my parents a lot more this week, as i realize that they set me to win in life because of they way they parented me.