One of the greatest joys in life is having a toddler in the house. Every day, something new and exciting happens. However, one of the greatest challenges in life is the parenting that goes along with raising a toddler. Proper parenting is crucial to keeping your child not only happy, but also safe, Good parenting will teach your child important life lessons, guiding him or her into a stable, happy, and successful adulthood.
To make the most out of parenting young children, we have provided you with ten specific tips. Most importantly, realize that you will be faced with challenges, days where you feel you cannot go on, but you can and you will. With a lot of patience, the right attitude, and having some helpful tips to follow, you will find that parenting a young child is not so difficult.
Remember, toddlers and younger kids are high energy, inquisitive, and manipulative. They know the buttons to push to get a reaction out of mom or dad. However, you will find these coping tools beneficial, actually allowing you to enjoy the parenting process instead of dreading it.
Understand your Role
In the position of being a parent, you are a life coach, not a judge and jury. Your role involve providing your younger child with encouragement, guidance, and praise, along with high expectations, constructive criticism, and limitations. Typically, a child will accept the role of coach much better than judge or even parent. Judging a child will only cause him or her to pull away, which is something you want to avoid at all costs.
Focus on the Right Things
Although parenting young children does involve discipline, you will find that keeping the focus on the positive, the child's sensitivity, hard work, intelligence, caring attitude, and other good qualities will build self-confidence and develop a more willing spirit in the child to mind.
High Expectations
There is nothing wrong with setting high expectations for younger children. This means establishing from an early age that you expect for him or her to get good grades, to graduate from high school, to choose friends wisely, and so on. As long as the expectations are attainable and realistic, go ahead and set them high.
Healthy Competition
Some parents feel that competition is a bad thing but actually, healthy competition is good. Actually, parenting young children and teaching them health competition choices does not mean placing the emphasis on always winning, but instead, of always doing his or her best, not allowing another person to win. Over time, the younger child will gain a new sense of confidence and character.
Social Involvement
Each child has to find his or her own way in social settings. If your child does not fit in with a particular group, the "in crowd", do not pressure. Every child has his or her own "in crowd" and as long as the friends are good, support their choice.
Activity Involvement
Encouraging your child to get involved in various types of physical activities is an excellent outlet. Some great options include the Boy or Girl's Scouts, school sports, debate, dance, and so. Getting gets involved with an activity that builds both mind and body is another means of parenting young children the right way.
For more free resources, visit http:www.thecbtcoach.com - Julia Sorensen is the author of "Overcoming Loss Stories and Activities to Help Children Transform Grief and Loss" Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers: http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book.php/isbn/9781843106463 Read my Amazon Listmania at http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A20NYFUZ03JP0D/ref=cm_lm_fullview_header_name