Parenting and Family Education

Archive for the ‘positive parenting tips’ Category

Raising children as a single mother is a challenge. There are moments when you find that your life is in complete disarray and your house is in complete chaos. This is the time when you feel that you lack essential parenting tips as a single mother. It is better to have such arsenal at your disposal before you land in such a situation.

There are numerous ways to deal with various age groups. Confronting strategies for toddlers differ with those for teenagers. Your 16 year old boy is likely to make fun of you if he is told to spend some time in a thinking chair as he is being obstinate, stubborn and aggressive. On the other hand a few minutes time out will do wonders while tackling a 4 year old. So to be successful as a single mother you should have a set of parenting tips for each group.

Material regarding good parenting skills is widely available. A number of genuine and self proclaimed specialists are also around. A list of websites, books and other means in this aspect would probably require paragraphs. To make your life easy I would mention a few here. You can start with a library or a book shop. Single moms bringing up toddlers and smaller children will really benefit from the Parents Magazine. Unfortunately the major content in Parents Magazine is aimed at married parents. Among the various books available, you should go through at least a couple of them. Those who like Dr. Fan will recommend you his books. Dr. Terry Brazelton is an authority on child behavior. He is a father as well as a pediatrician. Even though a number of his books may be out of date, the attitude of babies and other children has remained the same since long. Last of all “The Well Trained Mind” is a good choice for those who want to train their children early.

A number of websites and organizations are available to assist single mothers with parenting tips. A renowned group is Parents without partners. They provide a wide range of information for single mothers. In the UK similar information is available on gingerbread. Early Start and Head Start Programs deliver the same services in the USA. You may not be eligible for their preschool assistance, but you can participate in courses and seminars which they conduct on positive parenting. Last of all you can look for topics like single parenting and single mothers through any search engine on the internet and get the required information. So if you are a single mother in search of parenting tips now you know where and how to get the required information.

If you require some parenting tips just now I can give you a few basics. As an adult you should be in control. Keep yourself composed all the time. This may not be easy, particularly when you find green finger paint all over your kitchen. The moment you become angry and irritable, you lose your composure. Such a situation may make your little child scared. To be successful always be composed and exercise control over your voice and actions.

Parenting ADHD children can be stressful, frustrating and overwhelming. ADHD children have a shorter attention span than other kids and they often anger easily when they dont get their way.

Parenting through these difficulties will help raise a happy, healthy child. Here are 9 ADHD parenting tips to help you cope with and support your ADHD child.

1. Be consistent and set down specific rules. Changing the rules mid-stream can be confusing to the ADHD child. Be sure that both parents are on-board with the same rules.

2. Establish routines. All children thrive when they follow a routine but this is especially true of ADHD children. Be strict about the times that things take place but be aware of the fact that your child may have a short attention span. Limit the time children can watch television, play video games or listen to music. Sticking to these rules allows time for the children to think on their own and to use their creativity.

3. Assign weekly or daily chores. Use a chart to keep track of progress. Children love to get a gold star when they complete a task. For ADHD children, this can be a great ego boost. Be sure to explain exactly how to complete the task and even demonstrate it to them yourself.

4. Choose your battles wisely. Decide early on what things are most important and make sure that these things are the ones that get done. If the child wavers on an unimportant item let it go. What strikes the child one way one day may change the next. Be sure that your core values and beliefs are being honored.

5. Teach time management skills. ADHD children can benefit tremendously from learning the art of prioritization and time management. Often the child does not yet understand how to make these types of decisions. For older children utilize a planner or electronic organizers.

6. Break tasks down. Children with ADHD may not be able to stay focused on one task, especially if it is a large one. Break down each task into smaller, more manageable pieces. This will reduce the frustration level of you and your child.

7. Have patience. Parents already know that it takes lots of patience to raise their children with ADHD. To keep your own patience level up try giving tasks when there is plenty of time to complete them and enough time for you to follow up. Try to allow some room for error and always accentuate the positive things your child does.

8. Communicate with your child. One of the best ways to help ADHD children is to spend time with them. Set aside some time each day to talk to your child and get to know him. Help him to learn to communicate well with others and to know that he can come to you with any problems.

9. Be a good role model to your child. This is one of the biggest factors that will determine the outcome of your child as an adult. Although it may not seem like it, your child watches you and strives to be like you.

As parenting continues to evolve, new methods of positive parenting are always being developed. Every generation that ages begins to apply new ideas. Currently there are new methods to help parents in raising children. Positive parenting is a way to correct kids without making the children feel down or stupid. One technique is to show a child the right way to do something and reinforcing that positive feeling. The child may fail at a task but the parent is reassuring and lets the kid try it again until they get it right.

Positive parenting works for many kids but there are some parents and kids that may not be able to accomplish this task. That doesn’t mean that the parent or child is failing. Remember, positive parenting will not work all the time. A parent can work at finding positive markers for their children. Look for things that a child responds to, then use that reinforcement in other areas of his life. What the parent is trying to do is to make a child better prepared for the real world that they will someday live in. Starting early in life can make this type of parenting ingrained in the child.

Competition in the Adult World

As ones children get older and they want to spread their wings and fly into the adult world, they can only take with them those things that the parents taught them. The marketplace of America can be tough on those not prepared. If a parent concentrated on only positive parenting, the child will be very disappointed. Not everybody wins in the real world; in fact, most of the time will be filled with disappointment. The difference is how the child reacts to negatives. Learning to cope with loss or negatives is what being successful is all about. Mistakes can change strategy into a winning plan.

If America’s top 100 successful people were polled, every single person would tell of more failures in their early adulthood. They might also say that the failures were what eventually made them successful adults. Positive parenting is a great tool for raising kids, but allow them to make mistakes with small consequences to learn that every action they do has a consequence. Sometimes the consequence is good and sometimes the consequence is less favorable. Teaching the child this will show them that life goes on even when they make mistakes or fail. Changing ones behavior is what makes them excel in the future.