10 Parenting Tips To Make You The Best Parent
- Lifestyle
Bhanupriya Ramanathan- 0
- 14 minutes read
The best blessing that anyone can ever get is being a ‘parent.’ But it also comes with an array of responsibilities and requires massive efforts to ace. This is because children of the current generation behave in a way that is totally distant from the way their parents used to. The advent of technology and the Internet have also highly influenced the change. This makes parenting a lot more difficult. Further, the changing lifestyles, fast-paced working, and the difficulty of survival in such a world, have fuelled the need for correct parenting tips. These will ensure that your child doesn’t miss out on the parental care that one should experience in their childhood.
What Qualities Does A Good Parent Have?
The most important quality that a good parent possesses is making the best decisions for their child’s benefit. Moreover, the intentions of such a parent would only be limited to doing good to their children, improving their lives, and providing all the necessary amenities. However, this doesn’t imply that a good parent has to be perfect in all spheres since no one in this world is perfect. Therefore, a child should not have unrealistic expectations from their parents.
Doing all that is necessary for your child will surely make you the best parent in their eyes. It is also important to understand the needs of your child either physical or emotional and always be available for them in time of need. Another quality that a good parent must possess is never comparing their child with anyone else. However, the aforementioned qualities are not enough to be the best parent for your child and the article will provide you with a pool of other steps to be undertaken.
10 Parenting Tips To Follow
To become the best parent that your child deserves you should integrate some of the practices that you might be lacking till now. The list of healthy parenting tips provided here will aid you in loving the never-ending journey of being a parent. In addition, you will also be able to identify your shortcomings as a parent and how to improve them.
1. Show Your Love Through Actions
Well, it is true that true love doesn’t need to be shown off. However, your child may not be mature enough to understand that. Therefore, you need to show your love and affection through actions and even words. Often the misconception that loving your child more than required would spoil them hinders the entire process. This creates a gap between the parent and their offspring. Therefore, chuck that myth out of your system and do things that your child likes.
Take them out for a walk, and get them their favorite ice cream or chocolate, kiss them, hug them, and tell them how much you love them. These actions will not only aid in improving their mental health but also will build their trust in you. Scientifically speaking, these actions will help in releasing hormones like oxytocin that make one feel good and loved. So signs of affection will bring the child closer to you and in the due course, you will be able to understand them better. Moreover, the relationship you build with them in their early years lasts for a lifetime so make sure that you follow this tip to build a healthy foundation for your relationship with them.
2. Be Their Role Model
Parents often educate their children about what is wrong and what they should do to avoid that. However, they themselves forget these points and make the same mistakes they teach their children not to make. Therefore, to avoid a situation where your parenting is questioned by your child try to be their role model. Other tips provided here might fail if this one is not followed efficiently as your child will learn from your actions and the words you speak. Use of unethical language, shouting, or being extremely aggressive around your child would not only hamper their mental peace but also will distance them from you.
No parent wants their child to create boundaries between them, so be the ideal person that you want your child to be. Be punctual, be emotionally available, improve your career, and change your lifestyle for the better. Children notice the slightest of details, so there is no room for any discrepancy. For this, one doesn’t have to be perfect but careful. Proper attention to detail would just be enough to not commit errors that your child would rebuke you for.
3. Be Your Child’s Safe Haven
Whenever your child needs some help, you should be the first one they think of. Gaining this amount of trust is not easy and requires several efforts to obtain. A parent should always be attentive to their child’s needs and should help them out when needed. Parents should be the support system of their offspring. This point is one of the good parenting tips that are essential in the initial years of your child. However, this should be followed for the rest of your life. Children always need their parents to be around no matter what age they are.
It is seen that children who have had parents respond to their concerns immediately also tend to have improved emotional regulation progress. Further, their mental health remains better and aids in the development of their social skills. In addition, these children are also expected to be calmer in tense situations and capable of handling difficult situations effectively.
4. Adopt A Positive Parenting Process
In the early years of your child, their character is built. Therefore, the way you treat them plays a major role in that. This is because we don’t have thinking capabilities or perceptions since birth, we develop them over time. One main factor that determines how we think or behave is the environment we are raised in. Parents are recommended to adopt positive parenting tips to create an atmosphere that helps in sculpting their child’s nature well.
This can be achieved by providing your child with a positive interaction with the family. This will enable them to believe in the positive aspects and experiences of life. They can, in turn, offer such beautiful experiences to others as well, which will help in preventing overly selfish behavior. However, if they are given negative experiences, it will build them in that way. These children might end up being very aggressive in the future.
Now let’s discuss the way you should discipline your children. It is difficult to have a positive attitude while dealing with behavioral issues. However, it is easily achievable with the integration of positive discipline techniques and avoiding harsh methods. This will also relieve you of unnecessary stress. Don’t forget that the golden rule of assuring good discipline is to set limits and be consistent with your motives rather than being harsh on your children.
5. Never Beat Your Child Up
Several parents around the world think that scolding, shouting, or beating up their children is a way to discipline them. However, this is completely false. Beating up your child will never help them in any situation. Yes, they would never repeat that mistake over again but this will just happen because they would be cautious about being physically hurt. They would still not understand why you had earlier stopped them from doing such an action.
The best practice is to avoid physically hurting your child at all costs. Instead, one can calmly talk to them and tell them why they were wrong. This process might take longer but once they understand the reason behind you stopping them, they would never repeat it out of sheer conscience. Moreover, this is one of the important teenage parenting tips to follow.
6. Increase Communication With Your Child
You won’t know what is best for your child until and unless you communicate with them. Talking to your child for longer durations opens them up to you and facilitates you in understanding their thoughts and perspectives. In addition, it also aids your child in knowing you better. Thus, they will also be able to understand what you want them to be. This helps in developing a sense of cooperation between the both of you.
Further, their thinking capacity and concentration levels will also be benefited if you choose the right tops to converse and discuss. Choosing something from their school notebook will improve their understanding of the subject and can prove to be one of the best parenting tips for preschoolers. However, it is not recommended to always talk about serious topics. Even talking about their favorite cartoon, drama, or comic can help as they will be relieved of stress, if any, and will be able to engage with you in a better manner. This is one of the most important parent tips to follow in order to eliminate a host of issues that would ensue in absence of proper communication.
7. Remember Your Own Childhood
It is important to remember the way you were in your childhood and how your parents parented you. This acts as a basis on which you improve or you can even follow the footsteps of your parents in situations that require it. It will help you in ascertaining the reasons behind parenting in a particular manner. Then you can modify your actions accordingly. One should make a note of methods or techniques they wish to alter and then work towards achieving it. This is one of the parenting tips that require you to analyze yourself in a vivid manner. The key to mastering this is to never give up and keep trying. Several trial and error sessions would surely improve the parent in you.
8. Make Sure To Achieve The Parenting Goals You Set
As a parent, you would want to do a number of things for your child. In addition, you would also expect them to take responsibility, excel in school, respect everyone, and be caring towards others. However, most parents don’t devote much time and effort to achieving these goals but they should. They should plan their day or week accordingly and put in their best efforts so their child learns everything they wanted to teach them.
We know most parents just strive to get through the day anyhow. But some changes in the practices undertaken and proper planning of activities to be done in a day would surely be beneficial. Further, you should set specific goals for a period of time and not focus on an array of things to achieve. This will reduce pressure on both you and your child.
9. Go Through Research Findings On Parenting
As a parent, you should make use of the already known facts and tips that have been found by neuroscience scientists or even known psychologists. This will aid you in understanding how the child’s brain works and the methods to follow in order to tackle their fickle-mindedness. Moreover, every child is different and should be given special attention according to their needs, this is where the aforementioned research findings come to your rescue. This point in the list of parenting tips acts as a support system for the other steps. One book on this subject that we recommend would be The Science of Parenting, by Margot Sunderland.
10. Focus On Your Own Well-Being
In the course of being a good parent, don’t overlook your health and well-being. You as a human need relief too and should take some time off for yourself. Not caring enough for your own shortcomings or problems would make you feel stressed out. In addition, you might become severely aggressive, which may hamper your child’s mental peace. When you will be calm and relieved, you can provide better attention to your child’s needs.
To practice the above-mentioned tip, you should go for a walk, eat healthy, talk to your family and partner, sort out any differences with your partner, watch a movie, and just stay happy. Further, you can also try yoga or a set of exercises that would fit into your daily lifestyle. These positive practices will also be learned by your children since they see you as their role model.
Bonus Points
Since the above-mentioned points highly focus on kids and other grown-up children, we thought to include some parenting tips for infants. One of the primary new mom tips is to be patient with your newborn since they are tiny beings and don’t know anything about this world. The other tips include being around them, playing or singing soothing songs, reading a book to them, and being overly attentive to what they might need. In addition, it’s necessary that you don’t panic if something goes wrong. Instead, take a deep breath and find a solution.
Bottom Line
The question of how to be a good parent is often associated with perfection. However, the only thing that matters is taking action in the best interest of your child and not necessarily focusing on being ‘perfect’. To aid this beautiful journey of being a parent, we have provided you with 10 important parenting tips to follow so that your child can get the best experience from you. These tips include talking to them, adopting positive parenting, and saying no to physical abuse. However, with further experience and time, you will surely learn better techniques and methods of being a good parent.
