Parenting is the process of raising a child from infancy to adulthood. It can be a difficult job, but it can also be very rewarding. There are many different ways to parent, and what works for one family may not work for another. The key is to find what works best for you and your child and to stick with it. Here are ten tips to make parenting easier:
Types of Parenting
There are many types of parenting styles, but the most common are authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive.
Authoritarian Parenting
This type of parenting style is very strict and demanding. Parents who use this style typically have high expectations for their children and expect them to obey without question. Children raised with authoritarian parenting often lack self-esteem and feel like they can't do anything right.
Authoritative Parenting
This type of parenting is more relaxed than authoritarian parenting, but still has high expectations for the child. Parents who use this style are willing to listen to their children and consider their opinions, but they also expect the child to follow rules and behave responsibly. This type of parenting results in children who are confident and have a good sense of self-esteem.
Permissive Parenting
With permissive parenting, there are few or no rules, and parents rarely discipline their children. Children raised with permissive parenting often lack discipline and self-control.
Different Types of Parenting
There are many types of parenting such as:
Co-parenting
This type of parenting occurs when parents are no longer together but share the responsibility of raising their child. In this type of parenting, the two parents may divide responsibilities based on gender roles if they are not working together as a couple.
Permissive Parenting
This type of parenting is very different from authoritarian and authoritative styles in that discipline or responsibility rarely exists with this style. Rules are also usually few to none. Parents who use permissive parenting typically give their children whatever they want without consideration for others' needs or feelings (including other family members).
Demanding Parenting
In demanding parent-child relationships there is little warmth between the parent and child, which can have negative effects on both parties involved later in life. Children raised by demanding parents often feel like they never live up to expectations and tend to lack self-esteem due to these interactions over time. It.
Distant Parenting
In distant parenting, the parent is emotionally absent and uninvolved in their child's life. This can be due to many reasons such as work, mental health issues, or substance abuse. Children who are raised by distant parents often feel neglected and unloved.
Enmeshed Parenting
This type of parenting happens when a parent becomes too involved in their child's life to the point where it negatively impacts the child's development. Enmeshed parents typically smother their children with attention and do not allow them to have any independence.
Helicopter Parenting
Helicopter parenting is a more recent term that describes a style of parenting where parents hover over their children constantly, trying to control every aspect of their lives. This can be done by over-scheduling them, checking school work and homework, or making decisions for them in an effort to help protect the child from failure. This style results in children who often feel like they have no freedom and do not learn how to make good choices on their own.
Single Parenting
This type of parenting occurs when one parent is responsible for the child's upbringing. This type is most commonly associated with female parents but can also happen when a father is responsible for raising the child on their own.
Blended Families
A blended family is a family where children are from different marriages or relationships. This type of family is common after a divorce or the death of one parent.
Parallel Parenting
In parallel parenting, the parents have similar rules for their children and there is little to no communication between them about this. This usually causes conflict when one parent does not agree with what another has done or allowed in regards to punishment or reward of a child.
Foster Parenting
With foster parenting, an individual takes care of someone else's child without adopting them fully into their own home permanently. Foster parents are often paid by the state agency to take care of these children.
Ten Tips to Make Parenting Easier
Here are ten tips to make parenting easier:
Tip #01 – Establish Rules and Stick To Them.
In this tip, you will learn the importance of establishing rules. You will discover why consistency is important and how it helps children to behave better when they know what to expect from you. You can also try to find a way to make the rules more attractive.
Tip #02 – Stay Consistent.
In this tip, you will learn how to stay consistent with your children in order to create positive results and avoid negative ones such as bad behavior or defiance of authority. You can also find out here what it takes to be consistent when dealing with different types of situations like rewards, punishments, discipline methods, etc.
Tip #03 – Focus On Behaviors Not On Feelings.
This is another very important parenting tip that I want you to read carefully because consistency has been already mentioned several times before and for good reason: it's crucial! The main idea behind this post is that most parents get too carried away by their children's feelings instead of focusing on behaviors. Instead of saying, “why are you crying? What's wrong?” if a child is upset or sad, it would be better to say something like: “it must've been very frustrating trying to use your fork for the first time but then you figured out that you needed both hands.”
Tip #04 – Don't Reward Bad Behavior With Attention.
In this tip I will tell you how not rewarding bad behavior with attention can help avoid future problems and conflicts in your parenting style as well as boost self-esteem in children so they feel more confident about themselves when facing challenges at school or elsewhere. You will find what certain types of rewards really mean and why they might backfire at some point down the road.
Tip #05 – Avoid Neglecting Your Child's Emotions And Feelings.
You can find out how to avoid neglecting your child's emotions and feelings in this post, where I explain what emotional intelligence is all about. You would be surprised to know how many parents don't really understand their children and as a result, they often misread them or fail to encourage positive behavior because of this lack of understanding. This may lead down the road to social problems for some kids who are misunderstood by their parent(s). If you want your kid growing up feeling confident enough with himself/herself when facing challenges at school or beyond, then it would make sense if you paid more attention to their emotions and feelings.
Tip #06 – Don't Compare Your Kids To Others.
In this parenting tip, you will read why it's not a good idea to compare your children to other kids in order to make them feel bad about themselves or boost the ego of one child at the expense of another. You will also learn how this can have long-term negative effects on relationships between siblings as well as affect the self-esteem of all parties involved.
Tip #07 – Teach Them Empathy And Compassion.
You can teach your children empathy and compassion from an early age which will help them become better people as they grow older and develop into adulthood. Teaching these values at home shows that you care about the well-being of others and not just your own children. You will also discover what compassion really means along with some simple methods to teach it to our kids from an early age.
Tip #08 – Don't Let Them Watch Too Much TV And Play Video Games
In this tip, you can find out why letting your child spend too much time watching television or playing video games might lead them down a path towards social isolation as they grow older due to a lack of real human interaction in their lives when they were still young.
Excessive screen time may cause problems later on because there's no way back once we turn into couch potatoes after spending countless hours glued in front of screens when growing up while other important activities such as sports, socializing with friends or family members are put on the back-burner.
Tip #09 – Don't Use Time Out As Punishment Or Reward
In this parenting tip, you will find out why using time out when punishing your child is not a good idea and what alternative methods can be used instead to teach them positive behavior without resorting to punishment in any way whatsoever. I also explain why rewarding children with praise/attention for doing something right isn't always a great idea either although it's one of the most common techniques parents use today when dealing with their kids who misbehave too much.
Tip #10 – Don't Use Physical Force As Punishment
In this last tip about tips for better parenting, I explain why using force against kids who misbehave is not appropriate although many parents do it every day because they don’t know how else to deal with their rebellious kids. You will also learn what corporal punishment means along with some of the negative effects it has on children who are subjected to this type of punishment.
Impacts of Bad Parenting
There are many impacts of bad parenting on your child's development and growth which can affect them negatively well into adulthood. In this post, you will find out some of the negative impacts bad/good parenting has on our children:
Anger Issues
Being angry all the time and not being able to control your temper can have a negative impact on how you raise your children because it would be normal for them to inherit your anger issues.
Anti-Social Personality
If parents are unapproachable or aloof, then their child may also become anti-social which is another bad trait that should be avoided at all costs when raising our kids. Raising an anti-social kid who doesn't care about other people's feelings will lead down the road towards social isolation as they grow older due to a lack of real human interaction in their lives while still young.
Mood Swings
Children who grew up with highly emotional parents may also develop mood swings as they grow older. Mood swings are not a good thing (especially when in public) and it's important to learn some self-control and how to deal with your emotions before dealing with the same problems you had while growing up with your own children.
What Is Parenting Counseling?
Parenting counseling is the process of going to see a counselor who can offer advice and answer any questions you might have during the parenting journey. It's an opportunity for anyone (parents, guardians, or even grandparents) to get some professional help in raising their kids when they don't know how else to do it.
