Character U, Neighbor

My name is Gretchen Burman and I am the creator of The 12 Cs and the Life Tools Workshop and author of The Adventures of Ooga and Zeeta children's book. When I was pregnant with my first daughter I thought a lot about what it meant to be a good mother. How was I going to make sure my child knew the necessary skills to be happy and lead a fulfilled life? I had lots of questions swirling around my head and then one day on my vacation, I saw a young girl acting extremely inappropriately. How was I going to make sure my daughter doesn't do "that"!? I thought if I teach her to be confident she will respect herself and won’t behave like "that." I kept thinking and more questions ruminated in my head. How was I going to teach her to be a good person for herself and care about others? How was I going to teach her to have a high self-esteem and love herself? To dream big and work hard until she reaches her goals? To live with integrity and be kind? To show respect and compassion? To focus on healthy living and safety? To have the guts to go for whatever she wants in life? How was I going to teach her to learn from her mistakes and make better choices? To make sure she gives back to the community? To know the power of laughter and be able to laugh at herself? How was I going to empower her to be her best? What were the most important traits to teach her so she was living the answers to all of these questions? Lots of questions but unfortunately no good answers. Not fun when you’re pregnant with your first child and want her to have all the necessary life tools so she has an easier time growing than you did.

I went to the library to get some parenting books but was totally overwhelmed by the number of books and the number of pages of each book. I didn’t have time to read 200+ page books. I wanted something simple yet comprehensive. I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I soul searched and identified 12 qualities that I think are fundamental to having a thriving, fulfilled, happy, mindful, authentic and successful life. That is how the 12 Cs were born. My goal was to use every opportunity to proactively teach my daughter these 12 qualities. I knew I couldn’t stop the pain of life’s ups and downs but I could commit to spending dedicated, uninterrupted time continually teaching her the life tools so she would know how to stay at her ups longer and get through her downs quicker and easier.

I think about when I was a kid and people would say, “don’t worry, be confident or toughen up”. No one taught me "how" to help me center myself, be confident or be courageous. I didn't know how to figure it out on my own as a child. Now that I’m over 40 years old and have learned a lot through my life experiences I want to help children learn these helpful life tools much earlier. Growing up can be tough but with the help of The 12 Cs children will learn how to navigate through life, think for themselves, make good decisions and be prepared to handle whatever life throws at them.