Does your child have a strong will? Is your child strong-willed? Lately my news feed is flooded with articles determined to tell you whether your child is a force of will or not. I laugh because frankly, any parent of a strong-willed child already knows if his or her kid has the will of a killer whale or not. We don’t need a quiz to tell us our child would rather eat dirt than budge on his or her beliefs or ideas of what is acceptable. And if you do have a strong-willed child, congratulations: most likely, he or she got that strong will from you Mom or Dad! Sometimes when I find myself thinking, “Why won’t my daughter give in already?” I realize that someone down the line said the same thing about me (strong-will) and her father (stubborn– yes, those are two different traits). But instead of yammering on about how hard life is with a three year-old or thirteen year-old that believes it’s his way or the  highway, try learning how to embrace your child’s strong will with these tips.

Embrace Your Strong-Willed Child

1. Admiration

Have you ever met an adult who made such a compelling argument that even if you didn’t agree with this person, you couldn’t help but admire him or her? Envision your child about twenty years older. Now that you’ve done that, can you picture your strong-willed child as someone you would admire greatly? I did this with my own daughter and realized that I would have boatloads of respect for her at age 25 if she still had the same will. Appreciate what your child’s will brings to his or her life.

2. Recognize

Embracing your child’s strong will often means you have accepted him or her as the person he or she is meant to be! If you find yourself ready to eat the wall because your child is refusing to comply with your “flimsy” adults demands, wouldn’t life be much easier if you recognized your child’s disposition and then used it to your advantage?

3. Discover

Where did this will come from? Most likely you. Go through your own life and note when and where your beast of a spirit killed or conquered a life situation for you. Doing so will help you see how your child’s will will help him or her and where it might hurt him or her. That’s where you as a parent can step in and help.

4. It Could Be Worse

Your child could lack direction or go with the wind. Kids who go with the wind ride wherever the wind takes them and sometimes, those winds lead to a bad place. You don’t want your child to be a follower, and the strong-willed child is RARELY a follower.

Embrace your child for who he or she is. If you don’t, you’re going to have many unnecessary battles and heartaches.