Children with parents who undervalue themselves will not learn to value the parents, themselves, or others.

providing nutritious food and opportunities to strengthen body, mind, and spirit,

Babies develop a working model for future relationships based on their infant perception of how trustworthy and reliable their earliest caregivers are. That working model becomes the glasses through which they see themselves and others and affects the way they engage in relationships as

Elaine Childs-Gowell’s book, Good Grief Rituals,1

If we give to our children because it feels good to us, but does not meet the child's needs, it is a message to our children that they count only as a reflection of us.

Many adults have assumed, because of how they grew up, that they must accept or seek sexual touch in order to be nurtured. Here are a few: getting a therapeutic massage, asking for hugs from friends, fostering nourishing relationships with people who love and accept them for who they are, and caring for their bodies in a loving way by eating and

New rule: I am lovable. I examine my legacy and am doing my healing. I am learning about joy and finding it for myself. Devon: “My

Like every parent, I want nothing so much as my children's well-being. I want it so badly I may actually succeed in turning myself into a contented and well-adjusted person, if only for my children's sake. JOYCE MAYNARD

If a child does not have enough nurture experiences to keep the muscles of the personality strong, the skeleton of the structure will still allow the child to function. The child, however, will feel a hollowness or lack of joy in life, and lack loving response to others.