It came naturally to us to think about what our baby needed when it depended on us for everything. It came naturally to want to meet their needs. But as time goes on — and our children become more vocal and acquire a mind of their own — something begins to change…

Meeting the child’s needs is no longer intuitive. It takes a bit more effort to understand what is truly important at this or other stage of our child’s development.

Not only do our child’s needs change, but so do our own needs. And not only is it true that the child’s needs are no longer basic, they also tend to get entangled with the needs of our own…. 

No matter our child’s age, however, nurture and meeting the needs of our children continues to be the most important part of parenting. What it looks like will change and our approach will shift as well. We have to get this right in order to facilitate and not impede our child’s development.

The NURTURE element is one of the 3 Essential Elements of a solid parenting foundation, and it has many facets.

The simplest way to understand it, is to consider it from the point of needs — the needs of the child on the one hand, and the needs of the parent on the other. Tune into this episode to hear more about this essential parenting element.