Adult Limits

I'm very lucky. Both of my parents behaved pretty darn well. Some folks aren't so lucky. Their parents spend much of the time criticizing their choice of careers, their spouses, their parenting, and just about everything else they do. If you're reading this tip, I'm sure that you love your kids enough to set and enforce limits. Do you also love yourself enough to set limits with the adults you love? Listed below are some limits that I've seen healthy adults set with their parents:

• It's hard for me to visit when you put down__________. I'll visit you when I don't feel criticized.



• Feel free to come by as long as I don't have to hear about how bad you think that my __________is.



• I really love you too much to spend all of our time together arguing about__________.

Adults tend to be just like kids. When we set limits, they get mad in the short term and tend to behave better in the long term.