EMPATHY

My friend Lisa has two teenage girls,that are very rude and disrespectful.  Lisa is a single mom and struggles daily to be a good parent.  I've been trying to get her into family counseling.  I have a lot of empathy for her, she is trying her best to be a go0d mom.  "Empathy has an emotional dimension that help us get closer to experiencing others feelings."  I think her daughters would respect her more if they had rules and better boundaries.  It's easy for me to think I would handle her problems better if I were in her shoes.  I feel her pain and I try to help her the best I can.  It is hard to raise kids if they do not respect you.  I've noticed with my kids, I do get the respect I deserve, they know there boundaries and they are properly disciplined when necessary.  Lisa never disciplined her girls when they were little and now she feels it's to late.  "When we empathize we go beyond just thinking and feeling as others do genuinely care about their well being.  Lisa feels guilty for leaving her daughters father, she tried to compensate them by spoiling them rotten.  She knows now she did more damage than good.  I will be there for her no matter what. " When you empathize the experience becomes your own, at least for the moment.  "It may be impossible to ever experience another persons perspective completely, but with enough effort we can gain a better idea of how the world appears to him or her."  

References:

Looking out Looking In 12th edition  page 112