General Tips on Parenting or staying sane

A revamp from an original article in the early part of the 2000’s

1 Share a regular meal together, it may be difficult to organise in today’s times of busy families however well worth the effort.

2 Make it a habit to encourage your child / children regularly it helps to build self esteem and a sense of purpose.

3 Praise children for doing the right thing, particularly co-operating, playing well together, and assisting others,

4 Encourage good behaviour and take minimal or no notice of bad behaviour, remember that even negative attention is attention and berating bad behaviour may make it worse.

5 Have regular family meetings or gatherings and allow enough time for everyone to be heard.

6 Have achievable and realistic expectations of your children, do not expect too much or too little.

7 Allow your self to have fun time with your children; do not make a moral out of every game. Remember fun time is fun time.

8 Spend one on one time, children feel special when they get you all to themselves. Make quality rather than quantity time to spend with each child.

9 Allow children to help, accept the offer even if it’s easier to do it your self, this develops good helping habits, and they may not offer once they are teenagers.

10 Be consistent with discipline, effective discipline includes limits, routines and speaking in a respectful manner, avoid ranting raving and physical punishment.

11 Talk about feelings and emotions, it’s a good move to help your children recognise how they feel, anger, sadness, joy, and disappointment can be explained in general conversation with sentences like ‘Wow, you seem happy today’, and ‘Are you disappointed that your team lost?’

12 Remember that mistakes are all a part of learning, support your children in their efforts to do better. Perfectionists set them selves up for failure.

13 Avoid comparing your children with their siblings or peers; each child is an individual who develops at their own rate.

14 Encourage your child’s achievements by celebrating, go our for a meal or a treat, make a banner or present a family award

15Allow children to have personal space, encourage them to keep themselves occupied for short periods every day.

16 Have TV/ DVD/ Computer games free days, go for a walk, to the park, play games, and observe the things around you.

17 Remember that listening is one of the greatest gifts, Listen, to what your child is saying, without wanting to fix it for them. Listen to understand, not to give advice.

18 Be aware that spoiling a child is cheating them of their independence, one of the key goals of being a parent is to prepare out child to be independent. Remember that it is not only an only child that can be spoilt.

19 Help your child to identify their strengths, every child is good at something, help them to find that strength even if its not one you expected.

20 Do not argue or disagree in front of your child, be supportive of the other parent, even if you are separated. Work out your differences ahead of time and agree on a plan of action. Most important for guidelines and disciplines, and stick to it. One parent allowing late TV shows for example and the other not is not of any use to your child and creates confusion.

21 Allow your self to have some time off, exchange sitting hours with other parents, ask a relative to child mind, pay a baby sitter, use after school care and school holiday programs

22 Remember that your child is an individual, just as you are, and appreciate one another.

We could now add to this list

23 Limit the amount of time that children spend on electronic equipment, the EMF’s or Electro Magnetic Frequencies that such devices emit can be harmful to developing brains, this includes mobile phones, tablets, Ipads, and handheld video games. Time away from such devices is beneficial,

For both children and parents spending time on electronic devices the E.M.P or Electronic Media Protection sounds on the Sounds from Source You Tube channel are beneficial to play at the end of each day.

E.M.P.Sounds  https://youtu.be/vQR6o7MH_cU

24 Encourage children to write with pencil / pen and paper as well as on electronic devices, many children struggle with the basics of writing due to lack of tuition in this area.

25 Encourage counting skills and mathematical tables, again these appear to be sadly lacking in schools.

26 Children learn by example, the child who’s parents ‘read books’ is much more likely to read than the child who’s parents do not.

27 The Sounds from Source,com website has a Parents and Carers vibrational sound at No 18 which was created to ease the often felt frustrations of being a parent and the desire to use an old saying ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ the Parent / Carer sounds can be played as desired.

Another good option are the Peace sounds on the Sounds from Source You Tube channel at:

Peace Sounds https://youtu.be/glANsCkwVhs