Many parents are hungry for healthy parenting tips and effective parenting advice. The Responsible Kids Network offers parenting tips to encourage and support authoritative parenting.
I did not expect parenting to be so hard
New parents may be unprepared for the exhilarating, yet exhausting, journey that lies ahead in parenting. It’s important for all parents to realize that just because a person is able to procreate, doesn’t naturally provide the patience and knowledge needed to be an effective and healthy parent. Gaining knowledge about the nature of children and healthy and effective parenting styles, will help parents to be calmer and empower parents to be more effective in raising responsible kids.
I am hoping to parent differently than I was parented
Many times a parent may be aware of times that didn’t go so smoothly in his or her own childhood and wish to parent differently once he or she has children. At all ages and stages of our children’s lives, we may remember back to how our parents may have reacted in similar situations. Prior generations did not have the information that we now have available about healthy parenting. But family loyalties and legacies in each of our families has shown to significantly impact our parenting.
I am nice to my child but then he misbehaves
Parents and other caregivers sometimes hope that if they act nicely to a child, the child will act nicely in return. This is referred to as the “strings attached” approach. Adults (and some older children) can relate to the concept of fair giving and receiving, but most children are not mature enough to respond this way. By expecting this level of maturity, a parent is being unfair to a child. The executive role of parenting cannot be done through love and understanding alone. Effective discipline promotes self esteem, self-respect, self-control and preserves a positive parent-child relationship.
Am I a bad parent when I get angry with my child?
Anger is a natural and inevitable emotion and it’s okay to feel angry with a child. The key is for parents to learn healthy ways to express angry feelings to a child. Anger is usually a secondary emotion, so figuring out what the underlying feelings may be (frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, etc.) can be helpful in managing how to express anger. At these emotionally charged times, parents are role-modeling for a child how to handle anger.
My child and I are so different and we’re always clashing
The make-up of who a child is consists of ages and stages of development, uniqueness, maturity level, and situational factors. The uniqueness of a child (or any person)includes the individual nature of temperament, intelligences, brain dominance, giftedness, and learning styles. If these unique traits of a child do not “match” the unique traits of a parent, then there may not be “goodness to fit” and power struggles and miscommunication may result. When a parent is able to better understand these unique traits in a child, and how it may differ (i.e. conflict) with his or her own unique traits, the parent becomes calmer and more confident in parenting.