20 Tips to Improve Your Parenting Approach
Encourage Open Communication: Create a safe environment where your child feels comfortable discussing their thoughts and feelings. Never shame your child for expressing how they feel. It can also be helpful to ask your child if they are looking for advice or someone to listen to them when they come to you with something that is on their mind.
Establish Routine: Kids of all ages need structure. Having consistent routines provide stability and predictability, which are crucial for mental well-being.
Promote Healthy Habits: Encourage regular exercise, a balanced diet, and adequate sleep to support your child's overall health. It is important that you also model these habits for your child as well.
Limit Screen Time: Set boundaries on screen time to ensure your child engages in other activities that promote mental wellness. Extended screen time should be an occasional thing, not a daily activity.
Gentle Parenting Does Not Mean Permissive Parenting: Gentle Parenting is a trendy term right now. It’s an approach to parenting that can be done very well or very poorly. When using gentle parenting, it is important to remember that expectations and consequences can (and should) still be used at times. Permissive parenting, which is allowing your child to basically do whatever they want, is never a healthy or fruitful approach to raising your child. Gentle parenting done well incorporates boundaries and age-appropriate consequences in a gentle, loving way.
Foster Positive Relationships: We were created to live in community. Support your child in building strong, positive relationships with family and friends. You can do this by providing your child opportunities to build friendships through playdates, church, and extracurricular activities as well as by modeling what it means to maintain positive, healthy relationships with friends and family.
Validate Their Feelings: Let your child know that all emotions are valid and offer support during challenging times. Even if their mindset seems to be off-base, it is important to validate how they are feeling before offering correction, advice, or challenging their thinking.
Encourage Hobbies: Everyone needs a hobby! Engage with your child and show interest in activities they enjoy. This can boost their mood and self-esteem while building your connection with your child.
Set Realistic Expectations: Help your child set achievable goals and celebrate their successes, no matter how small. Starting this at a young age helps build confidence and a sense of self-worth.
Use clear and consistent consequences: Children need consistency and structure. Make sure your child has a clear understanding of the consequences for their actions and why they are receiving that particular consequence. Be consistent and follow through. If you say something is going to happen if they make a particular choice, follow through!
Monitor Social Media Use: If your child is at the age where they have social media, be aware of their online activities and guide them on healthy social media usage. Setting age-appropriate restrictions is key to protecting your child from seeing inappropriate content. Make sure their pages are private and you know who they are following and who is following them on their accounts.
Practice Gratitude: Encourage your child to focus on things they are grateful for to promote a positive mindset. Spending 5 minutes twice a day talking with your child about things you are each thankful for will help you both live lives of thankfulness and gratitude.
Create a Calm-Down Space: Ensure your child has a quiet, comfortable space where they can relax and unwind. If possible, allow them to help design the space or pick a few special activities that are only accessible when they are spending time in this space and switch out the activities occasionally.
Teach Problem-Solving Skills: Help your child develop effective problem-solving strategies to build resilience. Resisting the urge to jump in immediately and fix your child’s problems for them helps foster independence and a growth mindset.
Build Your Child’s Confidence In Their Identity: In our society, kids are struggling at an all-time high rate with their identity. Helping them understand and have confidence in their God-given identity in Christ is key to helping your child navigate the social extremes and pressures they will inevitably come into contact with.
Model Healthy Coping Mechanisms: Show your child how to manage stress and challenges in a healthy way. The more emotionally regulated you are as a parent, the more emotionally regulated your child will be.
Allow Your Child To Fail: Helping your child learn how to bounce back from failure and grow from those experiences is an important and often overlooked aspect of parenting.
Connect Before, During, and After Correction: No parent enjoys having to correct their child, but it’s an important and necessary part of parenting. Whether you are just having a conversation about a poor choice or giving a consequence for something, it is vital that you maintain your connection with your child throughout the correction moment.
Spend Time Outside: Spending time in nature can have a positive impact on mental health. Explore a new trail, go to park, or simply walk the sidewalks in your neighborhood.
Apologize When You Mess Up: It’s going to happen. You are going to respond in anger, forget something important to your child, or make some other mistake that hurts your child at an emotional level. When this happens, take the time to sincerely apologize to your child. Explain why you are apologizing and ask them how they felt, then genuinely listen to them. Don’t try to defend yourself or deflect their hurt. This will not only repair your relationship with your child, it will model what healthy reconciliation looks like when there is a wound in a relationship.
By implementing these tips, you can help nurture your child's mental health and well-being, manage discipline more effectively, and set your child up for a happier and healthier future. Parenting is hard, and sometimes kids need more support than you are physically and emotionally able to give them. To schedule an initial consultation or first therapy appointment for your child, visit our home page here and click on the “Schedule Your Free Consultation” link, or simply call, email, or complete our contact form on our contact page.
