As a parent, understanding who and what you REALLY can control helps enormously in several ways:

• you’ll keep a lot more of your hair (or at least you won’t be tearing it out!) because you won’t be taking responsibility for the impossible (making them do what you want)
• your kids will learn how to think responsibly rather than blaming you for everything that goes wrong.
• you will have a much better chance of developing and nurturing a strong, healthy relationship that is not relying on your ability to persuade or control them.
• they will know how to evaluate their own behaviour, and to find ways to plan sensibly for the future.
• both you and they will have higher self esteem and ways to feel in balance, even when things don’t go right.