Raising children is one of the hardest jobs out there. Despite your best efforts, you will make mistakes – you’re human, after all. But there are things that you can do to improve the chances of your children becoming confident and resilient.
Read on to learn some of the best parenting advice out there. This is far from an exhaustive list, though. Entire books have been written on this subject, after all.
The Five Principles of Positive Parenting
When it comes to positive parenting, there are five principles that you want to adhere to:
- Attachment – This is something that should be formed early on in a child’s life. They need to feel safe around their parents, otherwise it can lead to behavior problems and relationship issues later on in their life.
- Empathetic Leadership – Don’t mistake this for being permissive. Instead, you want to recognize what your child is feeling and act accordingly. Show that you understand their struggles – but keep your boundaries.
- Positive Discipline – Your children are going to act up, no question about it. It’s all about how you correct the behavior. Rather than punishing them, which leads to negative thinking, Instead, it’s about how you treat them over the long term – they will remember that more than any loud admonishments.
- Proactive Parenting – If you spot a problem in terms of behavior, it’s important to fix that early on. This way, your child won’t get fixated on the behavior, which can then make it hard to break any bad habits.
- Respect – You need to treat your children with the same courteous manner as other people. This can help them have a larger hippocampus, which will help them remember a lot more things, which is very helpful with learning.
The Three F’s
This is one time when getting an “F” on something is good. The “Three F’s” stand for Fair, Firm, and Friendly. Don’t mistake this for being your child’s friend – you still need to set boundaries with them as a parent, but you can show them what it means to be a fair parent.
Listen to what they have to say, examine the situation, and then firmly explain why things are the way they are. But keep your tone friendly and respectful. There may be times when this is challenging for you, like if they’ve broken something valuable, but if you take a few deep breaths, you can do it.
There have been hundreds of thousands of words written about parenting. It’s an entire industry unto itself. Ultimately, you can just listen to advice that resonates with you, and do the best you can each day so that your kids can pass those lessons along to their own children.
If being a parent was like being on the road, you’d be hitting a speed bump every three seconds. It’s normal to have some hiccups on the way to your child becoming an adult. Just do the above and you will likely have children that are grateful for how you raised them.
