Positive Parenting

Positive parenting means that a parent is able to recognize and work with both the child’s strengths and challenges to build a healthy, supportive and nurturing relationship.

The concept of positive parenting is fairly simple. It encourages children to respond to others positively, helps boost their self-esteem, teach positive values, morals, kindness, and the caring way in which we should treat others throughout our lifetime.

We hear the horror stories all the time. This is our way of reminding us all that there is another way to treat others, especially children. In today's world it is challenging to adopt a positive parenting style. Here are some positive parenting techniques to help promote your child's physical and emotional well-being.

Parenting
The editorial emphasis of this magazine is on educated and worldly parents raising children ages 0-12. There is in-depth coverage of the issues which affect families, from day-to-day matters like discipline and diet to more global concerns like day care and education. Its regular features focus on age-specific child development, education, health, family activities, food, travel, toys, games, fashion and beauty.

Help develop social skills in your child.

The single best childhood predictor of healthy adult functioning is "social competence". Social competency and healthy self-esteem go hand in hand. Take tme to set good examples, and teach children the social skills and behaviors that encourage positive social interactions between them and others.

Take time to talk to your child.

When feelings are bottled up, they can explode in the form of temper tantrums, bullying or mood swings. Encourage children to talk openly and let them know that talking through feelings is a healthy way of expressing anger, fear, sadness and pain. Provide children with the words to express their emotions, and be a role model by talking about your own feelings.

Leave the stresses of work at work.

When parents bring their job related stress home, they are less tolerant and more prone to argue with their children. This can damage a child's self esteem. It is important first to address your own stresses and mental health needs, so you can collect your thoughts, be composed and set positive examples for your children.

Avoid hyper-parenting.

Don't enroll children in too many extracurricular activities or become over involved in their academic, athletic and social lives. Children need the time and space to be creative, and think and discover things on their own. Hyper- parenting may damage self esteem by creating unrealistic expectations and putting too much pressure on children.

Celebrate Accomplishments.

Rewarding children for good behavior is more constructive than letting them know when they have behaved inappropriately.

Use discipline, not punishment.

Discipline is a method of teaching children acceptable behavior and helping them to make wise decisions on their own to act in positive ways. Punishment, on the other hand, involves using physical means or verbal criticisms to address a negative behavior. While punishment can lead to low self esteem, discipline will help children learn positive social skills.

When your child misbehaves, try these discipline methods.

Use constructive criticism rather than scolding the child. Focus on the misbehavior and how it can improved. An example would be to say "This playroom is a mess. I need you to please clean it up." Rather than saying, "You made a mess, you left your toys all over the place."

Instead of focusing on a negative behavior, help the child replace it with a more acceptable one. If your child is throwing a ball inside the house, take him or her outside to play ball together.

Give time outs and remove your child from a situation to allow time to regain self control. Have the child sit facing a wall away from any distractions for a set number of minutes. When the time is up, allow your child to return to the situation.

Promoting positive parenting will also promote positive mental and physical health in your child. Below are some signs to look for that will show you that you are promoting strong mental health by being a positive parent and influence.

Your child has friends and gets along well with others.
You child can concentrate and focus attention.
You child has relatively stable eating and sleeping patterns.
Your child shows reasonable interest and progress in school.
Your child is satisfied with most aspects of life.
Your child does not become anxious or angry over minor inconveniences or setbacks.
Your child's fears are reasonable and not excessive.
Your child shows respect for other people.
Your child maintains a reasonable amount of energy throughout the day.
You child has hobbies and enjoys different activities.

The positive parenting approach reflects the learning from decades of research on parenting style and the impact it has on children’s development. Positive parenting is the most important predictor of children’s mental health and success in life. Equally important, positive parenting helps create a lifelong warm, respectful and loving relationship between parent and child.

While as a concept, Positive Parenting may look challenging, there are three tried and true ways to become a positive parent that we suggest you put into practice in your everyday lives: comfort, play and teach, and with these practices, you won't go wrong!

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