Parenting is not easy, but good parenting is even harder. It’s the hardest job you will have as an adult. But, at the same time, it’s also one of the most rewarding. That said, there is no such thing as a perfect parent. Many people place such unrealistically high standards for themselves in this regard. The best that you can do is to ensure that your kids are healthy, loved, and well rounded.
But how can you do this? How do you raise great kids without completely messing it up and sentencing them to years of therapy? There’s no easy answer to this. Focusing on making your kids happy isn’t the right move since happiness is so fleeting. Instead, the best thing you can do as a parent is to equip your children with the tools to experience and handle negative emotions.
The real question you should be asking is how to raise successful kids with a strong sense of self-worth. You can find plenty of great tips for this at Cynical Parent. That said, here are 5 of the top ones to get you started:
1. Lead by Example
Research has shown that parents are the biggest influence on their children’s moral and emotional development. That’s because kids observe and listen to everything you do. We’ve all experienced kids listening in to the grownups talking, only to repeat the conversation verbatim at the most inappropriate time.
So your first goal should be to lead by example. Be the best person that you can be so that your kids have the best role model to emulate. Show strong examples of integrity and empathy too. This will affect what kind of person your child will be. It will define how they communicate their feelings and treat others – traits that will be vital to their future success.
2. Make Them Feel Loved and Valued
Good parenting means being warm, attentive, and patient with your kids. It’s important to show them that you appreciate what makes them unique and give them a safe support structure to express that personality.
Often times, many parents implement the “my way or the highway” system of doing things in the home. This might be appropriate for some things, but shouldn’t be used to stifle your child’s opinions or viewpoint. After all, a child that feels loved and valued is one who feels that their parents acknowledge, understand, and respect them.
3. Allow Success and Failure
When your kid does something well, praise them and not the achievement. Complimenting their effort in learning a new skill is a great way to build their self-esteem. It will give them the motivation to know that they can achieve anything as long as they put their mind to it.
But it’s also important to let your child fail. Making mistakes and feeling disappointment will make them a stronger person. It gives them the chance to face problems, find creative solutions, and learn how to take calculated risks. Ultimately, these traits will help them succeed later in life.
4. Encourage Creative Play
Play is vital to your child’s healthy brain development. When they are young, kids learn best through creative and meaningful play experiences. So focus on activities that encourage creativity, communication, and problem-solving. Believe it or not, such play will also help improve your child’s motor and emotional development.
5. Focus on Physical Health
As a parent, one of your main jobs is to ensure that your kids are healthy. That means you have to promote good nutrition and physical activity. This will form a strong basis for continuing a healthy status even later in life.
Thank you to the writer for this article!