Raising a healthy and happy child can be a challenging job for parents but it is also the most rewarding one. Parenting has been one of the most researched topics in psychology. Good parenting will help you in fostering honesty, kindness, cooperation, empathy, and self-control and will also promote motivation, intellectual curiosity, and encouragement to achieve higher goals. It helps in protecting your child from drug abuse, anxiety, eating disorders, depression, and antisocial behaviors.
Here are some tips for you to be a good parent. Many of these may not be easy and probably one cannot do them all. But if you work on them and follow them most of the time, you will find yourself moving in the right direction of good parenting.
1. Modeling
You should not just tell your child what he should do. Show him. Humans are programmed to learn by imitating. Be the person you want your child to be. Show your child respect, care, empathy positive behavior, and attitude. He will follow you.
2. Show your Love
Loving does not spoil the child but giving things in name of love spoils them – like leniency, overprotection, material indulgence, etc. Loving the child can be as simple as a hug, spending quality time with them, listening to them. Your love will not only make them calm and emotional but also will help you in building a closer relationship with them.
3. Be a Safe Haven
Let them know you will always be with them in any situation. Be responsive to their signals and sensitive to each and every need. Consistently responsive parenting will help them in their social, emotional, and mental health development.
4. Communicate with them
The importance of communication is very well known to everyone. Talk and listen to the child carefully. It will not only help in keeping a better relationship but also when he will come to you with any problem. Communication with you will help them in integrating different parts of his brain. Talk about the troubling experiences they faced and ask about how they felt. You do not need to provide them solutions but just listen and ask more questions that will help them in making sense of experience and integrating the memories. You can also write poems for your kids.
5. Reflecting
Most parents want to parent their children differently from their parents. Everyone wants to change some aspects of their children and want some change in their children. But most of the time we do exactly what our parents did. We are just a reflection of what our parents were and what they taught us.
Make a note of things that you want to be changed and think about how you will do in the real scenario. Change your behavior the next time you are in such a situation. You might not succeed on the first attempt but do not give up.
6. Set rules
You need to manage the behavior when he is young, otherwise, it will be hard for him to understand and manage himself later on. You should be able to answer these questions at any time of the day; where the child is? What is he doing? Who is he with? Rules you teach him will help him in applying them to himself.
7. Avoid harsh discipline
Do not hit your child under any circumstances. Children who get hit, slapped, or spanked are more likely to fight with other children, become bullies, or use aggression to solve disputes with others. You can use other methods to keep them disciplined that do not involve any type of aggression. Hitting doesn’t teach them what is right but teaches them to fear the consequences. It motivates them to avoid getting caught.
You can opt to use the traditional philosophies like spanking the child which can give you quick but temporary outcomes but involves high risk. So you should choose the well-researched, better, and more effective tips, some of which are explained above, to get better outcomes. Do you want to be a good parent to your children? if yes, then visit Global Moms Magazine.
