Excellent Advice For Being A Better Parent

parenting

Thoughtful parenting begins with the commitment to never stop learning new strategies to improve your parenting skills. What kind of parenting style you use is up to you, but every parenting style can be more effective with the addition of fresh ideas. Take a look at the practical advice below.

Don't come up with a \one size fits all\ idea of discipline. When disciplining your children, realize that they all respond differently to correction. While a time-out might be what one child needs in order to comply, that same method might not work for another. Find what each child responds best to: time-outs, confiscating toys, or extra chores, and then run with that.

Learn this trick for the best way to release the baby from the breast. When he is done eating on one side, take your pinkie and bring it in between your breast and the baby's gums. This will release the suction allowing you to take him off the breast. Whatever you do, don't try to pull him off, it will hurt.

When you have an infant, it is important that you keep an eye on your child at all times. At this stage in their life they cannot take care of themselves. Without keeping an eye on them they could get away with something that could injure them or possible kill them. For example,they could put something in their mouths and obstruct their esophagus.

A great parenting tip is to not always let your child get what they want. If you let your child get what they want all the time, they'll go through life thinking they'll never have to hear the word \no\. Be reasonable with your child and tell them \no\ when you need to.

Get your twins on the same schedule as soon as you can. Having two babies on two separate schedules can end up being the death of you. You have to get your rest where you can but twins who are hungry and sleepy at different times will keep you from doing so. If one wakes up hungry, feed him and then wake up the other one. Make sure to lay them down at the same time. It won't take long before they start getting on the same schedule.

Be consistent. Children function better when they know what is going to happen during the day, especially young children. A huge change in schedule or no schedule will give you very crabby children. They will feel like they are out of control, and they will show you that in their behavior.

Give your child choices whenever you can. This can help to avoid the never ending battle of trying to get your child to do the one thing you want. A child is responsive to choices, even at a young age. It lets them feel a sense of control and accomplishment.

You should try to share your hobbies with your children to see if you will share some common interests. If they do not like the things that you like do not be upset with them. Always remind them that they are free to have their own thoughts and feelings about things.

Homework can become very frustrating for children. Sometimes, the amount of homework our children bring home can seem daunting, to say the least. When your child seems too stressed-out during his evening sessions, try suggesting a homework time-out to ease the tension. Having a snack, drink, or maybe just some conversation about his day will sometimes do the trick. Breaking the work up into more manageable tasks can help as well.

As mentioned above, no matter what parenting style you choose, you can make it more effective when you seek out new ideas. The key to thoughtful parenting is to recognize that you can always use fresh ideas to make sure your parenting skills are right for you and your child.

How to respond to tantrums - Harvard Health Blog - Harvard Health Publishing

As Murphy’s Law would have it, children’s tantrums seem to happen at the most inconvenient times. Your toddler or independent-minded 3-year-old turns red, screams, stomps, and appears possessed when you’ve finally gotten everyone geared up for a family walk, or wrangled that video call you spent days coordinating with relatives to get everyone live at once — or even worse, when you need silence for your weekly video conference call at work.“What’s gotten into you? We don’t have time for this!” you might think. Everything you say and do seems to make the tantrum worse, and it takes all of your remaining resources not to throw a tantrum yourself. What can you do instead when your child throws a tantrum? Below is a three-step strategy that can help.

Validate the emotions behind the tantrum

Validating someone’s emotions means acknowledging them. You are not agreeing or disagreeing with the feelings; you are demonstrating that you hear the other person.You likely have noticed that logic does not go over well with a child throwing a tantrum. For example, let’s say your child throws a tantrum while demanding a cookie before dinner. “Why are you so unhappy? You know you cannot have dessert before dinner,” you point out logically. Most likely, the child’s ears will close, and the tantrum will escalate because they don’t feel heard. Instead, validating their emotions can help them identify how they are feeling, which is one step toward helping them regulate or calm their emotions.In this case, you can state, “You’re angry with me because I won’t give you a cookie before dinner.” Sometimes, you might just validate the feeling and leave it at that. Other times, a second clause helps illustrate that two opposing statements can be true at the same time: “You’re angry with me because I won’t give you a cookie before dinner, and you can have one after dinner.” If you’re trying this, it’s important to use the conjunction “and” and not “but.” That way, you won’t negate the first part of the clause.Your child probably won’t smile and agreeably walk away. However, validating can prevent an escalation of the tantrum and curtail the intensity of the emotion.

Further reading: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-respond-to-tantrums-2020051919845