Parental Perfection

I went to a seminar the other night titled "Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child". It was packed. There were easily 2,000 people there...2,000 parents, that is. Who else would go to such a seminar?

Full of great information, humor and encouragement, I walked away from there stunned that so many parents were in one room. My thoughts ranged from respect for a culture that so clearly prioritizes children to anxiety over the need for parental perfection.

So much of what was discussed is in turn instinctive and difficult. The main outline talks about "Emotion Coaching" in 5 steps, including:
1- Noticing emotion
2- Having an attitude that emotion is an opportunity for teaching
3- Understanding, not judging, emotion
4- Providing verbal labels for what kids are feeling
5- Setting limits

All that being said, is their room for humanness-- error-- learning from mistakes? Or are we programming our children for perfection? And who decides what that is-- when we, as parents, have failures, who coaches our emotions? Or are we not allowed to fail-- and what does that teach our kids?

Perhaps, if we all try together, we can raise a generation in which the need for these seminars no longer exist. All I know for sure is that I went home and kissed my sweet kiddos in their sleep-- hoping above hope that they just know how hard we tried.