Being a parent is the most important and challenging job you will ever accept. It is a 24 hour/day, 7 day/week job that begins before your child is born and doesn’t end until you do. Of all the roles you have…of all the hats you wear, being a mother or father takes precedence above all others. It is the most important thing you will ever do with your life and it demands passion, energy, and vigilant attention in order to be successful. To devote less than the job requires is simply unacceptable. Being an effective parent in the 21st Century is a daunting task but Elmcrest believes that there are resources, approaches, tips and techniques that can help every parent do the best job they possibly can in raising their child to productive and successful adulthood.

In the early 1940’s, Abraham Maslow introduced his hierarchy of needs as a theoretical foundation for the human motivation. His approach to human development and human needs, provides us with an excellent foundation upon which we can build good parenting skills and healthy families. Quite simply, Maslow believes that human development is built on the ability of the individual to successfully meet prescribed sets of needs at various stages of development. He refers to them as a hierarchy which can be graphically illustrated as follows:

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