Top 10 Good Parenting Tips – Best Advice

Let your child know that you’ll always be there for them by being responsive to the child’s signals and sensitive to their needs. Support and accept your child as an individual. Be a warm, safe haven for your child to explore from.

Children raised by parents who are consistently responsive tend to have better emotional regulation development, social skills development, and mental health outcomes^​5​.

#5: TALK WITH YOUR CHILD AND HELP THEIR BRAINS INTEGRATE

Most of us already know the importance of communication. Talk to your child and also listen to them carefully.

By keeping an open line of communication, you’ll have a better relationship with your child and your child will come to you when there’s a problem.

But there’s another reason for communication — you help your child integrate different parts of his/her brain.

Integration is similar to our body in which different organs need to coordinate and work together to maintain a healthy body. When different parts of the brain are integrated, they can function harmoniously as a whole, which means fewer tantrums, more cooperative behavior, more empathy, and better mental well-being.

To do that, talk through troubling experiences. Ask your child to describe what happened and how he/she felt to develop attuned communication^​7​. You don’t have to provide solutions. You don’t need to have all the answers to be a good parent. Just listening to them talk and asking clarifying questions will help them make sense of their experiences and integrate memories.

#6: REFLECT ON YOUR OWN CHILDHOOD

Many of us want to parent differently from our parents. Even those who had a good upbringing and a happy childhood may want to change some aspects of how they were brought up.

But very often, when we open our mouths, we speak just like our parents did.

Reflecting on our own childhood is a step towards understanding why we parent the way we do. Make note of things you’d like to change and think of how you’d do it differently in a real scenario. Try to be mindful and change your behavior the next time those issues come up.

Don’t give up if you don’t succeed at first. It takes practice, lots of practice to consciously change one’s child upbringing methods.

#7: PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN WELL-BEING

Parents need relief too.

Pay attention to your own well-being.

Often times, things such as your own health or the health of your marriage are kept on the back burner when a child is born. If you don’t pay attention to them, they will become bigger problems down the road^​8​. Take time to strengthen your relationship with your spouse.

Don’t be afraid to ask for parenting help. Having some “me time” for self-care is important to rejuvenate the mind.

How parents may take care of themselves physically and mentally will make a big difference in their parenting and family life. If these two areas fail, your child will suffer, too.

#8: DO NOT SPANK, NO MATTER WHAT

No doubt, to some parents, spanking can bring about short-term compliance which sometimes is a much-needed relief for the parents.

However, this method doesn’t teach the child right from wrong. It only teaches the child to fear external consequences. The child is then motivated to avoid getting caught instead.

Spanking your child is modeling to your child that he/she can resolve issues by violence^​9​. Children who are spanked, smacked or hit are more prone to fighting with other children. They are more likely to become bullies and to use verbal/physical aggression to solve disputes. Later in life, they are also more likely to result in delinquency and antisocial behavior, worse parent-child relationships, mental health issues, and domestic violence victims or abusers^​10​.