The Single Most Important Parenting Strategy

Becky Kennedy's TED talk is not just for parents. It's an inspiring message for anyone, children included, on the power of repair.

This week I posted on Instagram a link to this TED talk by Becky Kennedy. A friend DM’d me this reply:

Reading her book and her advice has totally changed my perspective and the way I raise my children. I think it’s fair to say that I’m a better mother thanks to her.

My favorite holiday is coming up. It’s Yom Kippur. In Judaism, this is the day of atonement. I was fascinated during my conversion to find that this came after the new year, Rosh Hashanah.

First we celebrate the New Year, and then we clean the slate?

And what does it even mean to clean the slate?

It is to take stock of all of our wrongdoings, I learned. Who we have injured, and who we have harmed.

But then what? Are we to apologize to anyone we have caused harm to?

No.

It is not enough to acknowledge and apologize for what we have done. We must also atone. Apologies are easy. Atonement is hard.

Atonement requires repair.

And if you watch Becky’s remarkable talk, it turns out that there is a particular way to do repair. And if you wait for the way she closes the talk, you will see why it is never too late.