Effective Parenting Do's And Dont's

As parents, it is normal to want your children to grow into responsible, happy and well-balanced adults. They want their children to grow up being productive members of society, and after all, what kind of parents would not want that? If this is what you want for your children, it is important that you first pay a lot of attention to developing parenting skills that will be beneficial to teaching your children the life skills they will need to grow into the adults you want them to be.

As such, you need to learn about what you need to do and what you shouldn't do when it comes to developing these kinds of skills. Communicating regularly with your children is among the first things you need to do. Show your children you are interested in what they are interested in, ask them how their day went, give advice when they ask for it and LISTEN to what they have to say.

You also need to be the adult you want them to grow into. Be a role model to your children because they will copy everything they see in you. You should also be encouraging, even though it can be a challenge some of the time. If you want to see total transformation in your children, leave them to make their own decisions and allow them to fail, as this is one of the first things they need to learn about; your job is to encourage them to pick themselves up, brush the dust off their shoes and try again.

You should trust your children too. Over-protectiveness won't lead you to anything good, tell them you trust their decisions and abilities and are always there to support them if and when they need you.

So if you want to raise your kids to be the happy and responsible adults, there are also things you need to avoid. To start with, you shouldn't set unrealistic expectations and goals for your children. While there is absolutely nothing amiss with having hopes and dreams for your offspring, positive parenting, just so you know does not involve living your unfulfilled dreams through your children, so you should never set unrealistic expectations or goals for your kids. Another thing you need to avoid is negotiating with your kids over something they are supposed to do.

Never promise material rewards for helping household chores or finishing homework on time, these are instances when you need to be firm and clear about the importance of fulfilling responsibilities, not because they can expect something in return but simply because fulfilling tasks are what responsible members of society do.