*September 7th*

I admit, as a kid, I've often come to Parent Team Intervention Team meetings acting like a "victim" and feeling sorry for myself! Gratefully, however, the parent team consistently refuses to fall for my manipulations. It never would help if my counselor, or the team of parents in support of my mom and dad, should ever assure me that my resentments are justified or that I should continue angry name-calling against my parents. What I need to learn is to "resist" the habit of arguing and demanding that things always go my way.

Maybe I should accept that it is correct that I've been wrong in how I've treated my parents and others in the past. That actually they love me, and want for me only what is for my good.

When I complain about something another person has done in my family that I don't like, the Parent Team gives me honest feedback about what I can do in the future to both improve my own attitude, then respond in acts of kindness to find in life what I really want to do.

Today's Reminder
Parent Team meetings can be inspiring, interesting, enlightening, and even fun. But if I only fight against the Parent Team, demanding my own way, because the parents love me, they will not give up so that I can be better in the future. When will I listen with an open mind, accept suggestions, and put to good use what I learn? Maybe then I will see that these people are truly my friends, and that my parents deserve to be respected.

"I pray to let nothing stand in the way of my learning about myself. This is the only way I will truly grow as a teenager, then finally as a young adult. This will become the way I will get what I want in life. By thinking of others before myself, and by being kind and not argumentative."

[Taken and fashioned from "One Day At At Time In Al-Anon"
for general family relationships by Jim Hogue, MA, MFTI]