Through working with parents around the world, across countries and cultures, it has become absolutely clear that we all want the same things for our children. We want them to have choices in their lives: in what they do, how they earn their living, what relationships they form. We want them to have the resources to be able to make those choices and make the most of them—resources including knowledge, finances, and rapidly increasingly, key ‘human skills’ such as emotional intelligence, entrepreneurial learning mindsets, opportunity and need finding abilities, conflict management skills, co-creative vision-building chops, etc. Finally—and we shouldn’t feel guilty about this—we want them to not be dependent on us, financially or emotionally.

Now, as engaged parents, we must understand that how we interact with our children teaches them at least as much towards the development of the skills, habits, and attitudes required for the lives we want for them as school does. If we take into account that we are their primary source of learning how to be in the world for at least the first few years of their lives—and combine that with the fact that even top schools are still at best inadequately providing support for development of the ‘human skills’ that are crucial for being ‘future ready’ (if not actively countering those skills through outmoded education practices)—then what we teach through our interactions with our children becomes all that much more important. 

While that realization can bring feelings of pressure and unpreparedness—especially on top of the fact that many of us struggle daily with simply getting our kids to eat healthily, be on time for school, do their homework, etc.—there is good news. Not only can we do all the things we need to do as parents more easily and with more joy for all involved, but we can do so knowing that HOW we are doing them is helping our children (and us!) practice and grow crucial skills—skills that help us be more fulfilled in our lives in the moment AND help us have the lives we want for each other in the future. And we only have to make one change: move from command-and-control to co-creation. 

My life as a parent and my relationship with my three children transformed when I began applying in my parenting the very principles and values I was using in creating world-leading education programs around the globe: the principles and values of equity and co-creation. Indeed, these are the same principles we at Eliad Group bring to all of our work, whether in schools or corporations, from kindergarten to the boardroom, as we work to help spaces of shared endeavor move from command-and-control to co-creation; to ‘re-humanize how we work, learn, lead, and live.  In businesses, this leads to cultures of greater creativity and innovation; in schools, this leads to more engaging and transformative education; and in parenting, this leads to more harmonious home lives and better preparation for schools, jobs, and relationships later in life.