Dear Lav K:

You are welcome. Your resolution to be assertive is a good one! Your children will learn from you and asserting themselves will make their life much better! You wrote that you inherited your “soft spoken and humble” (non-assertive) nature from your mother, but no, it is not a matter of inheritance; you were not born non-assertive. You learned your non-assertive ways from your mother.

Develop your assertiveness. It is a skill: learn, practice and practice some more. You will get better at it over time and you will do your children a great service, as they will learn from you.

anita