Parenting kids - how to be the best parent you can be
Parenting; the most important job in the world; what a responsibility.
And to make it worse our kids don't come with instruction manuals. Scary huh?
So what is parenting? It is everything we put into our kids.
Love, care, nurturing, feeding, discipline (yes! that is included), teaching, influencing, guiding.
Sometimes we have not been parented well ourselves and that influences our parenting, it is important to know though, that every parent does make mistakes mostly because we have to learn about how to parent well as we go along.
So why is it important to parent well?
Because these are the things that good parents bring to their children.
They bring love to their children; and first and foremost our children need to know that they are loved.
They bring discipline to their children, discipline is important, children are born and as they grow need external government or order to help them to behave within the boundaries that have been set for them.
The hope is that as our kids grow up they will have internal government, whereby they know themselves what is acceptable or not.
Good parents will bring support and help to their children, life is difficult and our kids need to know that we will be there for them whenever possible even if it is the early hours of the morning.
We need to listen and hear what our children are saying to us
What do we as parents bring to our children?
We should be a good source for our kids. They will look to us for everything initially but as our children get older they will look to others if they do not get enough from us.
Parents bring identity, acceptance and approval to their kids, our children see themselves through our eyes, they can see and feel acceptance and approval from us.What they see in our eyes and behavior towards them will influence how they go out into the world and make relationships
Parents keep the kids rooted in reality, let's not wait for our kids to go on a reality TV show or a competition to have others tell them they cannot sing, we need to be real with our kids about their abilities, encouraging those skills that are good.
Parents show kids how to submit to authority - this is absolutely necessary in all areas of life - when we find this difficult we make life hard for ourselves and for the person who is in authority, we can teach our children that they may not like the person or what they are doing, but it is the authority of their role we submit to and not the person themselves.
Parents show kids how to respect themselves- sometimes children really struggle with self esteem, this is an area we can help in by positively affirming our offspring helping them to see the good in themselves.
Parents teach kids to have the capacity to confront others, a skill that not many have - the ability to talk to others about difficult situations.
Parents teach kids to handle confrontation positively, this situation is never easy but handled well we pass on skills for life.
Parents show kids integrity -if we act in integrity we influence our offspring to do the same.
Parents equip their kids to do things properly and to have endurance, sometimes we find situations difficult but we may need to endure it for a while, for instance, a job in which we are perhaps being undermined. gain our children will be influenced by outr behavior in this kind of situation.
Parents equip their kids to do thing with excellence. If we are going to do something we may as well do it to the best of our ability, we can teach this value to our children
You can read about the above in more depth on our good parenting skills page
Love and enjoy your kids, they are given to us for such a short time.
Before long the outside world will be influencing who they are; so let them have happy memories to tuck under their belts.
Spend time together; this is a gift that is precious, time is something we are all short of.
Time brings more memories than gifts will ever do.
In these pages you will find lots of thing to do that are fun. They don't require money but do require your presence.
Grab the kids and have some quality time together.
Check out our 10 parenting tips and our articles on parenting styles for more help
We also need to assist our kids with loss and grief.
Helping Children Smile One Page at a Time
Description: A program that sends coloring pages to terminally ill children
each month with the hope of making them feel special, to let them know they
are loved and hopefully provide some comfort.
Educational Childrens Books, Blocks, and Toys
Description: Kids educational toys that stimulate the imagination,
educate the mind, and tickle the fancy. Books, blocks, and toys that
make great presents or baby gifts.
Is it time to plan your child's next birthday party?
Your kid asked to see real penguins? interested in acrobatics?
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