Parent Resource 10 Parenting Practices That Pay Big Dividends When Kids Are Older Written by Kerry Flatley, Certified Parent Educator
Link to Article As a new mother, I had no idea what kind of parenting would pay off in the long run. Like most parents, I read and received a lot of advice. But, I wondered, which parenting practices would have an impact and which would I find unnecessary? Now that I’m twelve years into being a parent, I can say with certainty that a few suggestions I followed when my kids were young have paid off – despite sometimes being challenging at the time. There’s no question that some parenting practices are simply easier to begin when kids are little. Young kids are eager to learn and aren’t too set in their ways. As these kids grow up, they’ll be less likely to question what’s been standard practice in their family for many years. Child-Rearing Practices You’ll be Glad You Started When Your Kids Were Young I didn’t do everything perfectly when my kids were little. In some areas, I wish I had done much better. But listed below are ten parenting practices I learned about and embraced when my kids were young that have made a big difference over the years to both them and our relationship: Learn how to talk (and listen) to your kids Learning to communicate with my young kids in a
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way that minimized shouting matches and allout wars made a huge difference in our relationship. Talking to and listening to my children in a productive way wasn’t something that came naturally to me at first. But once I read the book How to Talk so Kids Will Listen, Listen so That Kids Will Talk and put the authors’ ideas into practice, my ability to communicate with my girls gradually improved. After reading the book, I realized that listening to and asking my kids questions about their emotions can calm just about any storm. And due to these listening techniques, my girls seem to know that I’m on their side even if we don’t readily agree on the issue at hand. That’s not to say that my kids listen perfectly to everything I tell them and sometimes we disagree. But we now have a better sense of how to communicate with each other – including when we’re feeling frustrated or emotional. Stick to a routine Research shows that getting kids into a daily routine can work wonders for their temperament, anxiety, and can even help them get to sleep at night. That last issue – getting to kids to sleep – is the reason we began a routine when my firstborn was an infant. As a new mother, the last thing I wanted to do was to be tied down to a schedule. But in order to get my daughter to sleep, the advice I received was to begin a routine with her. This would help give her cues throughout the day, I was told, including when it was time to go to bed. It was a struggle those first few weeks. It took discipline to have my daughter go down for a nap at exactly 10 am every morning and take her bath every evening right at 6:30 pm.
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