It's no surprise that mothers want the best for their children, but are they setting the bar too high when it comes to their own expectations of themselves as parents? One in three mothers admit to setting expectations for themselves as parents that are "unrealistic," according to the Moms Straight Talk on Parenting survey conducted by the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish brand.

The poll of more than 1,000 mothers with children ages 6 to 12 also revealed that 70 percent of mothers surveyed feel pressure to be perfect and 60 percent of moms said that raising kids is much tougher today than when they were growing up. Three quarters of moms surveyed worry whether they can provide the skills their kids need to reach their potential.

"Most moms worry if they're doing all they can to help their children become happy, productive adults," says positive psychology expert and mother of four Dr. Karen Reivich, a teacher and researcher in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. "It's a surprise, however, to realize that many mothers apparently know they are placing unrealistic and probably stressful expectations on themselves, and that those expectations may hinder their ability to impart important life skills to their children."

Reivich is a top advisor and contributor to the Fishful Thinking program (www.FishfulThinking.com), a parenting resource that provides simple, everyday, fun strategies that parents can use to help raise children with a positive outlook on life and who can confidently handle the challenges that come their way. Fishful Thinking focuses on five key skills that all parents can teach to their children: optimism, resilience, goal setting/hope, empowerment and emotional awareness.

On FishfulThinking.com parents will find activities like the following to do with their children to help strengthen these important life skills:

Optimism
Why it matters: Developing this skill helps children learn to focus on the positive, without denying the negative, and to channel their energy toward what they can control, rather than what is out of their control. Optimistic people work toward creating positive change.

Teaching activity: Host a "savoring party." Invite some kids and their parents to your house and ask each to bring something for the group to savor. It could be food, a piece of music, art, clay, a kaleidoscope - almost anything that brings satisfaction and enjoyment. Place the items to be savored on the floor and provide paper and crayons. Ask each parent/child team to pick an item to savor and write down in five minutes as many words as they can think of to describe what they are savoring. At the end, give each team the opportunity to share their list.

Emotional awareness
Why it matters: A building block for a healthy emotional life, emotional awareness is the ability to identify and express one's own feelings and to empathize with what others are feeling.