Coping Skills, LLC; Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE COPING SKILLS PROGRAM
Storybooks that teach cognitive, emotional and behavioral skills

YOU WANT TO BE A GOOD PARENT AND HELP YOUR CHILDREN BE SUCCESSFUL!

The best thing you can do for your children to insure that they will have a happy, successful life is to teach them how to cope with life. Coping is defined as, " The ability to experience a less than optimal situation, face it, accept it, and proceed forward with an adaptive response "(Kendall, 1992).

The importance of being able to cope with life's difficulties is illustrated in this recent phone call I received at the clinic. A distraught mother, Mrs. Thompson, was seeking addiction help for her jailed son. He has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and gambling. He is in jail because he stole her car and wrecked it. Mrs. Thomson said that she feels guilty and responsible for her son's current condition.

She explained that when he was twelve, his older brother died. She admitted that she spoiled her remaining son by not holding him responsible for his behaviors. She would get him out of any difficulties. She always took up for him in any problem situation at school or with the authorities. She overlooked his demandingness and lack of concern for others. She said that she now realizes that she has been wrong in her way of dealing with her son and wants him to get help.

Mrs. Thompson's son is fifty-one years old and she is eighty-four! These problems have been going on for almost forty years! How difficult do you think it is to get the habits of forty years changed? Don't you think it would have been better if Mrs. Thomson had taught her son how to cope with life's difficulties when he was in elementary school?

The Coping Skills books are designed to do just that! With the help of a comical crow, Cosmos, you have stories and lessons in each volume that will help your children develop the skills to cope with life difficulties. Your children will be able and willing to take personal responsibility. They will be able to resist negative peer pressure. They will be willing to face tasks that are difficult, scary or boring because they will accept that these tasks are necessary.

And this can all be accomplished though fun stories that your children will remember all of their lives. You don't have to lecture or threaten or punish, if they understand that "Good Thinking" leads to "OK emotions" and "Thumbs Up" behaviors. But be cautioned…it's not magic, and it does take some work, but the rewards are great and the alternatives are not.

PARENT'S POEM

Some day when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent I will tell them:

I loved you enough to ask you where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room. A job that would have taken me 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough to say "no" when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of them all. I'm glad I won them because in the end you won something too.

Anonymous