Parenting Tips: Work on yourself to become the most effective parent

Parenting is the most challenging and rewarding thing you will ever do - I know, it sounds cliche, and I'm sure you've heard it a million times....but, it simply is so true.

Dear readers,

I have heard many parents ask or say: I have tried everything, the child won't listen... I have to scream/be harsh to get him to listen!

Precious parents, I assure you there is another way.

When parents desire alternative outcomes or behaviors from their children, the first method to changing the outcome seems to be focused on changing the child. Unfortunately, that just doesn't work. What you should do, is focus on yourself.

When you focus on yourself, you are able to find your parenting inadequacies - and if you can't find them, you can seek help from parenting experts. Most often, our desired outcome with our children is solely dependent on us as parents - the way we interact and discipline our children. The parent and child relationship is the single most important relationship in which a child develops (Siegel & Bryson, 2011). We must work to connect with our children in a way that sets them up for success - your effort in connecting with your child will allow you to see what his or her greatest needs are.

A large part of this inward journey is ensuring that we as parents are mentally healthy. We simply can't raise mentally strong children if we ourselves are not mentally healthy.

Some questions you may want to ask when reflecting on yourself are:

Do I shame? Do I yell? Do I push? Am I quick to hit? Do I criticize? Do I go from 0 - 100 in seconds? Do I blame others? Do I own my mistakes? Do I apologize when I am wrong? Is my child passing all classes?

To tell you the truth, I have never met a perfect parent - most parents come with some kind of emotional baggage. My suggestion is that you take a deep inventory of yourself, and see what triggers you - then ask yourself why? If you are yelling or flying from 0 to 100 in minutes, you have work to do - truthfully we all have work to do! Don't be discouraged, be encouraged you made it here! May God be with us and bless our journey.

References

Siegel, D. J., & Bryson, T. P. (2011). The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture your Child’s developing mind.

© 2024 MARION PEREZ. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.