What makes a great parent?
A good parent is a person who strives to make decisions in the most effective 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 does not need to be perfect. Nobody is perfect. No child is ideal either … keeping this in mind is important when we set the expectations of ours.
Successful parenting isn't about achieving perfection. But it does not mean that we shouldn't work to that goal. Set high standards for ourselves then and first our children second. We function as important role models for them.
Top 10 Parenting Tips
You'll be a much better parent, in case you follow these 10 strategies for parenting tips, and you'll avoid bad parenting.
They aren't all that simple or quick.
And most likely nobody is capable of doing them all the time.
Although you may not necessarily do all of these things, although the recommendations in this parenting guide will help you move in the right direction.
#1 BE An excellent Role MODEL
Walk the walk. Do not simply tell the child of yours everything you wish them to do.
The most effective way to teach is to show them.
Human is a special species in part because we can learn by imitation. We are programmed to copy others' actions, understand them, and integrate them in to our personal. Children, particularly, watch everything their parents do very thoroughly.
Thus, function as the individual you want the child of yours to be - respect your kid, demonstrate to them good attitude and behavior, have empathy towards your kid's emotion - and your child will follow suit.
#2: Love THEM And Show them Through ACTION
Demonstrate the love of yours.
There's no such thing as loving your child too much. To love them can't spoil them.
Just what you choose to do (or give) in the name of love can - things as material indulgence, low expectation, leniency, and over protection. When these items are provided in place of love that is real, that is when you will have a spoiled child.
Loving the child of yours may be as easy as offering them hugs, spending quality time with them, having family meals together, and also listening to your child's problems seriously.
Showing these actions of love is able to trigger the release of feel-good hormones like oxytocin. These neurochemicals are able to provide us a deep sense of calm, emotional warmth, and contentment; from these, the kid, will acquire resilience and not to point out a closer connection with you.
#3: Practice Kind And Firm POSITIVE PARENTING
Babies are born with around 100 billion brain cells (neurons) with comparatively few connections. These connections create the thoughts of ours, drive our actions, shape the personalities of ours, and essentially determine who we are. They're "sculpted", strengthened, and created through life experiences.
Give the child of yours positive family interaction, especially in the beginning years. They'll then be able to see positive experiences themselves and provide them to others.
But if you give your child bad experiences, they will not have the kind of development needed for them to thrive.
Sing that silly song. Have a tickle marathon. Go on the park. Laugh with your child. Allow them to have positive attention. Drive through an emotional tantrum with them. Solve an issue together with a positive mind-set.
These positive experiences create excellent neural connections in your child's brain and create the memories of you that your kid carries for life.
When it comes to discipline, it appears to be hard to remain positive, particularly when dealing with behavior problems. But it's possible by using positive discipline and avoiding harsh discipline.
Being a great parent means you need to teach the child of yours the morals of what is right and what's wrong.
Setting limits and being constant is the golden rule to discipline that is good. Be kind and firm whenever you set rules and implement them. Focus on the reason behind the child's misbehavior. And allow it to be an opportunity for them to learn for the future in a good way, rather than to get penalized for the past.
#4: Be a Safe HAVEN FOR YOUR CHILD
Let the child of yours realize that you'll always be there for them if it is responsive to your child's signals and sensitive to their needs. Support and accept the child of yours as an individual. Be a warm and safe place for the child of yours to explore from and go back to.
Children raised by parents who are constantly responsive have better emotional regulation development, interpersonal skills development, and mental health outcomes.
#5: Talk with YOUR CHILD And Help THEIR BRAINS INTEGRATE
Most of us know already the value of communication. Talk to the child of yours and also listen to them carefully. By maintaining an open line of communication, you will have a much better relationship with your child as well as your kid will come to you when there is an issue.
But there is an additional reason behind communication. You help your kid integrate different parts of their brain, a critical process in a child's development.
Integration is similar to our body, 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 psychological well-being.
To accomplish that, conversation through troubling experiences. Ask the child of yours to describe what happened and how they felt developing attuned communication.
You do not need to offer solutions. You do not have to have all of the answers to be a good parent. Just listening to them talk. Ask clarifying questions using words that are simple are going to help them make sense of the experiences of theirs and integrate the memories of theirs.
#6: Reflect on Your own CHILDHOOD
Many of us want to parent differently from the parents of ours. Even people who had an excellent upbringing and a happy childhood may want to alter several elements of the way they were brought up.
But very frequently, when we open the mouths of ours, we speak the same as the own parents of ours did.
Reflecting on our own childhood is a step towards understanding why we parent how we do. Make note of things you would like to change and think of how you would do it differently in a real scenario. Attempt to be aware and change the behavior of yours the next time those issues come up.
Don't quit if you don't succeed in the beginning. It takes practice, lots of practice to consciously alter one 's child-rearing methods.
#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 the own needs of yours or maybe the health of the marriage of yours are placed on the back burner when a child is born. When you don't pay attention to them, they are going to become bigger problems down the road. Make time to enhance your relationship with the spouse of yours.
Stressed-out parents are 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 revitalize the mind.
How parents take proper care of their child mentally and physically will make an impact in their parenting and family life. In case these two areas fail, your child is going to suffer, too.
#8: Don't SPANK, NO MATTER WHAT
Undoubtedly, to some parents, spanking is able to bring about short term compliance which sometimes is a much needed relief for the parents.
Nevertheless, this method doesn't teach the kid right from wrong. It only teaches the kid to fear external consequences. The kid is then motivated to stay away from getting caught with behavior that is inappropriate.
Spanking your child is modeling to your kid that he/she is able to resolve issues by violence. A child who is spanked, smacked, or maybe hit is more vulnerable to fighting with other children. They're much more likely in order to become bullies and to use verbal/physical aggression to resolve disputes.
Later on in life, they're also more apt to result in oppositional behavior and delinquency, worse parent-child human relationships, mental health issues, along with domestic violence victims or even abusers.
There are a variety of more effective alternatives to discipline which have been shown to be much 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?
If you are like most parents, you would like the child of yours to excel in school, be productive, be independent and responsible, be respectful, enjoy good relationships with you and some, be to care 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 most likely spend the majority of the time simply attempting getting through the day. As authors, Siegel and Bryson, point out in their book, 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 frustrated or angry, step back. Consider what frustration and anger can do for you or the child of yours.
Rather, look for ways to turn each bad experience right into a learning opportunity for them. Even epic tantrums could be transformed into invaluable brain-sculpting moments if you focus 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's already known by scientists.
Parenting is one of the most researched fields in psychology. Lots of parenting strategies, traditions, or practices were scientifically researched, refined, verified, or refuted.
For best parenting advice for raising a child and information that are backed by science, here's among https://parentinghowto.com/ my favorite science-based parenting guides, The Science of Parenting.
Making use of medical knowledge is of course not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Every kid is different. Even within the very best parenting style, there are able to be many different effective parenting methods you could choose according to your child's temperament.
A good example is employing spanking to discipline. There are many 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.
Naturally, you can additionally decide to use "traditional" or maybe "old school" parenting styles (e.g. punishing or spanking) and might still buy a "similar" outcome.
Differential susceptibility has found us that children with various 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" no matter how strong their parents treat them. But it does not mean those practices are great. These children are simply fortunate. They can thrive despite poor parenting, not because of it.
Why take a chance with sub par parenting practices when you can use well-researched, better ones?
The importance 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 the part of yours in the short term but can help you save lots of time and agony in the long term.
Final Thoughts On Parenting
The good point is, that although parenting is hard, it's also really rewarding. The bad part is the rewards usually come later than the hard work. But in case we try our best now, we will ultimately reap the rewards and have absolutely nothing to regret.
To Happy Parenting!