Headmaster Seminar: Dr Judith Locke
Thank you to Dr Judith Locke from Confident and Capable, who was our guest speaker over two nights as part of our Headmaster Seminar Series.
Judith addressed our Staff, Junior, Middle and Senior School parents and carers about ‘Helping your child or teen become confident and capable in their schooling’. In her work as a clinical psychologist and researcher, Dr Judith Locke sees a disturbing link between high-effort parenting and poor outcomes for children. She believes parents make their children’s lives too easy by doing too much for them and giving too much to them. This type of parenting produces ‘the bonsai child’, an apparently perfect child raised in a protected environment and nurtured on attention to their every need. Dependent on constant care, the bonsai child can remain confined by their ideal conditions, incapable of coping in the real world.
The sessions were very well received and parents and carers took away some great strategies to assist their child’s development. A key takeaway of Judith’s was Parents: Step back so they step up!