Atop my soap box for a minute...

My friend Cindy (the one with 39 children) pointed out a very important study to many of her faithful readers yesterday. She has rediscovered an amazingly poignant academic work by Stanley Coopersmith, a professor with the University of California-Davis, who did an exhaustive study on self-esteem. Coopersmith discovered overall:

Students with low self-esteem graded 101.53 on the IQ test, while students with high self-esteem graded 121.18 on the IQ test...a 20 point difference, all other factors considered, resulting simply with how they felt about themselves.

Coopersmith also uncovered some promising information:

1). When the parents spent a lot of time with the children - 82% of the children had high self-esteem.
2). When the parents showed a lot of affection - 79% of the children had high self-esteem.
3). When the parents and the children had a good rapport - 88% of the children had high self-esteem.
4). When the children were held to high standards - 80% had high self-esteem.
5). When the children had constancy of rules - 88% had high self-esteem.
6). When the children had firm and fair parental decisions - 85% had high self-esteem.
7). When the parents dreamed of their children's achievements - 88% of the children had high-self-esteem.

Now, I have to tell you, these are EASY things for parents to do: spend time, show affection, be constant and firm, dream. It doesn't say a thing about buying the child a new video game system or $100 jeans.

I'm holding all parents accountable here, myself included. There are no acceptable excuses for not doing our parts...our children deserve it.