Doing my best as a parent

I have been reading an excellent book by Dr Dave Ziegler, a psychologist and therapist who has done amazing work with severely traumatised children over many, many years. The book's title is: 'Achieving Success with Impossible Children'. Some extracts:

"The best measure of our progress as a parent is not to look to our accomplishments, but to look inward at who we have become ... As a child matures, it is your responsibility to provide opportunities for him or her to make better decisions ... if you have done your best to teach the child that there are consequences for our actions, and being responsible is a necessary personal quality, then what the child decides to do is his report card, not yours ....

"Yes, I believe we can take on the hardest challenge in parenting or working with a difficult child, and we can proceed with the confidence that we can learn, we can influence, and we can succeed ...

"So the way to work with a difficult child and have it a no-lose proposition is to do: your homework, never stop learning, use your mental skills, model being healthy, continue to reach out regardless of the response, take care of yourself, get the help you need, change most of your thinking about parenting, learn to enjoy the process, and don't give up! I didn't say it was easy, but I do believe it is possible."

One needs to read the book to fully understand what he is getting at, though I enjoyed the positive message of hope which he relays to all his readers.