What makes a good parent?
A good parent is someone who strives to make choices in the best interest of the child.
What can make a great parent is not only identified by the parent 's actions, but also the intention of theirs.
A good parent doesn't need to be perfect. Nobody is perfect. No child is perfect either … keeping this in mind is important when we set the expectations of ours.
Successful parenting isn't about achieving perfection. But it doesn't mean that we should not work towards that goal. Set very high standards for ourselves then and first our children next. We function as role models that are important for them.
Top Ten Parenting Tips
You'll be a much better parent, if you stick to these 10 strategies for parenting tips, and you'll steer clear of bad parenting.
Not all of them tend to be that easy.
Not everybody is able to do them constantly.
Nevertheless, even if you only do part of these hints in this parenting guide, you'll be moving in the correct direction in case you keep working on them.
#1 BE An excellent Role MODEL
Walk the walk. Do not just tell your child everything you wish them to do.
The most effective way to teach is to show them.
Human is a special species in part since we are able to learn by imitation. We're programmed to imitate others' actions, understand them, and integrate them in to our own. Children, in particular, watch everything their parents do very carefully.
Thus, be the person you want the child of yours to be - respect your kid, show them positive attitude and behavior, have empathy towards your kid's emotion - as well as your child will follow suit.
#2: Love THEM And Show them Through ACTION
Demonstrate your love.
There is no such thing as loving your child too much. To love them cannot spoil them.
Only what you decide to do (or give) in the name of love can - things like material indulgence, leniency, low expectation, and over-protection. When these items are provided in place of real love, that is when you will have a spoiled child.
Loving the child of yours may be as simple as offering them hugs, spending quality time with them, having family meals together, and also listening to your kid's problems seriously.
Showing these acts of love is able to trigger the release of feel-good hormones such as oxytocin. These neurochemicals are able to provide us a full feeling of contentment, emotional warmth, and calm; from these, the child, will develop resilience and not to point out a closer relationship with you.
#3: Practice Kind And Firm POSITIVE PARENTING
Babies are born with around 100 billion brain cells (neurons) with relatively few connections. These connections create our thoughts, drive our actions, shape the personalities of ours, and essentially determine who we are. They're "sculpted", strengthened, and created through life experiences.
Give your child positive family interaction, particularly in the early years. They'll then be equipped to experience positive experiences themselves and offer them to others.
But if you give your child bad experiences, they won't have the kind of development needed for them to thrive.
Sing that silly song. Use a tickle marathon. Go to the park. Laugh with your child. Allow them to have positive attention. Ride through an emotional tantrum with them. Solve an issue together with a positive attitude.
These positive experiences produce good neural connections in your child's brain and create the memories of you that your kid carries for life.
With regards to discipline, it appears to be hard to remain positive, particularly when dealing with behavior issues. But it is possible by using positive discipline and avoiding harsh discipline.
Being a good parent means you need to teach the child of yours the morals of what's right and what's wrong.
Setting limits and being consistent will be the golden rule to good discipline. Be kind and firm when you establish rules and enforce them. Focus on the reason for the child's misbehavior. And allow it to be an opportunity for them to find out for the future in a positive manner, instead of to get penalized for the past.
#4: Be a Safe HAVEN FOR The CHILD of yours
Let the child of yours realize that you will remain there for them by being responsive to your child's signals and sensitive to their needs. Support and accept your child as a person. Be a safe and warm place for your child to explore from and go back to.
Kids raised by parents who are consistently responsive have better emotional regulation development, interpersonal skills development, along with emotional health outcomes.
#5: Talk with YOUR CHILD And Help THEIR BRAINS INTEGRATE
Most of us already know the value of communication. Talk to the child of yours as well as listen to them thoroughly. By keeping an open line of communication, you'll have a much better connection with the child of yours and your child will come to you when there's a problem.
But there's another reason behind communication. You help your kid integrate various parts of the brain of theirs, a crucial process in a kid's development.
Integration is akin to the body of ours, in which various organs should coordinate and work in concert to have a trully healthy body. When various regions of the brain are incorporated, they are able to work harmoniously as an entire, meaning less tantrums, more good behavior, more empathy, and better mental well-being.
To do that, talk through troubling experiences. Ask your child to explain what happened and the way they felt developing attuned communication.
You do not need to provide solutions. You don't need to have all the answers to become an excellent parent. Simply paying attention to them talk. Ask clarifying questions using simple words will help them make sense of their experiences and integrate their memories.
#6: Reflect on Your own CHILDHOOD
A lot of us wish to parent differently from the parents of ours. Even those who had a good upbringing and a happy childhood might wish to change some elements of the way they were brought up.
But very often, when we open the mouths of ours, we speak the same as our own parents did.
Reflecting on our own childhood is a step towards understanding the reason we parent the way we do. Make note of things you'd like changing and think of just how you'd get it done differently in a genuine scenario. Attempt to be mindful and change the behavior of yours next time those issues come up.
Don't give up in case you don't succeed in the beginning. It will take practice, lots of practice to consciously alter one 's child-rearing strategies.
#7: Pay attention to Your personal WELL-BEING
Parents require relief too.
Give consideration to your own well-being to prevent parental burnout.
Oftentimes, things including your own needs or maybe the health of your marriage are placed on the back burner when a child is born. When you don't take note of them, they will become bigger problems down the road. Make time to strengthen the relationship of yours with your spouse.
Stressed-out parents tend to be more prone to fighting. Do not be afraid to request parenting help. To have some "me time" for self-care and stress management is crucial to rejuvenate the brain.
How parents take care of the child of theirs mentally and physically will make an impact in the parenting of theirs and family life. If these two areas fail, the child of yours will suffer, also.
#8: Do not SPANK, NO MATTER WHAT
No doubt, to some parents, spanking is able to bring about short term compliance which occasionally is a much-needed help for the parents.
However, this method does not teach the kid right from wrong. It simply teaches the child to fear outside consequences. The kid is then motivated to avoid getting caught with behavior that is inappropriate.
Spanking your child is modeling to the child that he/she is able to resolve issues by violence. A child who's spanked, smacked, or hit is much more vulnerable to fighting with other children. They're much more likely in order to become bullies and also to www.parentinghowto.com use verbal/physical aggression to solve disputes.
Later in daily life, they're also far more likely to lead to delinquency and oppositional behavior, worse parent child human relationships, mental health issues, and domestic violence victims or even abusers.
There are a variety of more effective options to discipline that have been shown to be more effective, such as positive discipline (Tip #3 above positive reinforcement and).
#9: Keep Things In Perspective And remember YOUR PARENTING GOAL
What is your goal in raising a child?
When you are like the majority of parents, you want your child to do well in school, be prosperous, be responsible and independent, be respectful, enjoy positive associations with you and others, be caring and compassionate, plus have a happy, healthy and also satisfying life.
Though how much time do you spend working towards those goals?
If you're like most parents, you probably spend most of the time just trying to get through the day. As authors, Siegel and Bryson, point out in the book of theirs, The Whole Brain kid, rather than helping your kid thrive, spent most of time simply attempting to survive!
To not let the survival mode dominate your life, next time you feel angry or frustrated, step back. Think about what anger and frustration will do for you or your child.
Instead, find ways to switch each bad experience right into a learning opportunity for them. Even epic tantrums can be turned into priceless brain sculpting moments in case you concentrate on teaching your child, not trying to control them.
#10: Take a SHORTCUT By utilizing Findings In Latest PSYCHOLOGY And NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH
By shortcuts, I do not mean shortchanging the child of yours with tricks. What I mean is taking advantage of what is already known by scientists.
Parenting is among the most researched fields in psychology. Lots of parenting strategies, practices, or traditions have been scientifically researched, verified, refined, or refuted.
For optimum parenting advice for increasing a child and information which are supported by science, here is one of my personal favorite science based parenting books, The Science of Parenting.
Using medical knowledge is of course not really a one-size-fits-all strategy. Every child differs. Quite possibly within the best parenting style, there are able to be a variety of effective parenting practices you could choose based on your child's temperament.
A good example is using spanking to discipline. You will find numerous better alternatives, e.g. redirection, reasoning, time-in, etc. You can choose a non punitive discipline method that works best for the child of yours.
Of course, you can additionally choose to utilize "traditional" or maybe "old school" parenting styles (e.g. punishing or spanking) and also may nonetheless get a "similar" outcome.
Differential susceptibility has shown us that kids with different temperaments respond to the quality of parenting differently.
Those who are more vulnerable to parenting quality is going to have better outcomes under great parenting but worse outcomes under poor parenting.
Those who are much less susceptible may "turn out fine" regardless of how tough their parents treat them. Though it doesn't imply those practices are good. These children are simply fortunate. They can thrive despite poor parenting, not because of it.
Why take a possibility with sub-par parenting practices if you can use well-researched, better ones?
The value of parenting can't be underestimated. Taking science-based parental advice might not be the easiest way to parent. It might require more work on your part in the temporary but can save you lots of agony and time in the long run.
Final Thoughts On Parenting
The good point is, that although parenting is hard, it is additionally very rewarding. The bad part will be the rewards typically come much later than the effort. But in case we try our best now, we'll ultimately reap the rewards and have absolutely nothing to regret.
To Happy Parenting!