If I just love my kids enough, everything else will fall into place.

There was a book written in the early 1970’s I believe, titled, “Love is Not Enough.  As the title suggests, the author’s primary objective was to drive home the point that when it comes to parenting, there is more involved, more required of us parents, than to simply love our kids.  Most of us know that, but too often it seems that many of the other ingredients required for successful parenting are minimized or in some cases, left out al- together.

I’m not certain, but it does seem to me that out of all the responsibilities we have as parents, loving our kids is the only one that is instinctual. It is innate, it is there from the very beginning, and does not come and go based on how we otherwise are feeling toward them during difficult times.

We don’t really have to work at loving them.  Even in the midst of wanting to strangle the little devil, we still love him; even when our little girl who used to worship the ground we walked on begins to question and doubt us, we still love her.

So if love is the only instinctual ingredient in our role as a parent but it is not enough, then what else is required of us?

In an attempt to answer this question, I wrote, Parenting with an Attitude….21 Questions Successful Parents Ask Themselves. Rather than repeat myself, I refer you to a list of 21questions that address what beyond loving our kids is necessary for their emotional health and well-being. It is certainly not an exhaustive list, but rather examples of parenting responsibilities that take an intentional effort on our part with our kids that don’t just happen naturally because we love them. And, as the title suggests, all 21 questions address the importance of our attitudes toward them.

Suggestion: Remember that loving our kids-as important as it is-is just the foundation for much more that they need from us.