There is much pressure on a parent’s shoulders these days. You have to help your child navigate smoothly from being a baby to their toddler years, all the way through school, and up to their teenage years. This 24/7 job never ends, not even when your children leave the nest, and your main priority is making sure your kid grows up safely, happily, and becomes a wonderful adult. Here are a few parenting tips to help you achieve these goals and help you be a good parent nowadays.
- Listen to your kid
Everyone needs and wants to be listened to nowadays and kids are no exception. Long are the days when children needed to obey their parents no matter what and they were only allowed to talk when asked. Today, for a child to grow beautifully and develop their sense of confidence, they need you to listen to them, to their wants and needs. Don’t assume that you know your child so well that you don’t need to actually talk to them about how they feel or what their necessities are. Be open and proactive and always encourage your child to share with you both their problems and accomplishments.
- Be honest
Honesty is a precious quality you would surely love your child to possess. The good news is that kids are easy to steer in the right direction, especially when they are little. Also, they will most likely imitate what they see in you and your behavior. Therefore, if you are being honest and open about your feelings, capabilities, and expectations, your kid will learn to do the same. This can go a long way later on as honesty is the key to building strong and lasting relationships. Moreover, an honest and open attitude will help you solve, or avoid conflicts with your kid altogether.
- Trust your instincts
As a parent, you develop an extra sense that keeps on getting sharper and stronger as your child grows. Your parenting instincts are very powerful tools you should be relying on. When that bothering inner voice tells you that something is happening to your kid, don’t ignore it. It’s your instinct that’s urging you to take action and help your kid. That gut feeling comes as the result of a lot of processing that’s going on in your mind, based on your past experience. Trust your intuition in educating your kid and make sure your feelings are in tune with what is really happening with your child by talking to them and encouraging them to open up to you.
- Nurture respect and gratitude
Respect for others but also for yourself lies at the foundation of healthy human relationships. Where there is no respect, other positive feelings such as love can’t thrive for long. Kids need to learn what respect is from an early age. Although this sounds a bit harsh, it isn’t. Help your child understand respect by starting with physical boundaries. For example, not taking other kids’ toys without their permission is a good lesson of respect. Respect manifests itself in different ways and it starts with simple things, such as paying attention to another person’s property, right to privacy, and opinion. And, of course, the best way to teach your kid how to behave respectfully is to be a respectful and respectable person yourself.
Show your love
You could never love your child too much, but simply feeling this wonderful emotion isn’t enough. Your kid needs to see and feel your feelings too and, ideally, they should also hear that you love them. The more loved a child feels, the more confident and happy they become. Love itself doesn’t make kids become spoiled or conceited, just the things some parents do in order to prove their love lead to those results, things like being over-protective or giving in to your kids’ whims all the time.
To show your child how much you love him or her, you don’t need to buy them everything they want or take them everywhere they want to go. Simple things such as playing with them, giving them hugs, or asking them how they feel, and taking time to listen to them are great ways of manifesting your love.
Finally, there is no ultimate guide on how to raise your child the right way. Some tips that might work for your kid could prove to be wrong for others. The only way to become an awesome parent nowadays is to experiment with different techniques and strategies, but always remember that honesty, patience, and love are the key ingredients to bringing up a beautiful and happy child.