Hello! For those of you who are interested, I decided to compile some of the 'parenting principles' I've been learning in Graduate School. None of these points hold true all of the time, in all situations. Some of this will be obvious. However, I thought a quick overview might be beneficial for some of you parents out there! Here it goes :
- Any attention paid to a behavior (positive OR negative) will reinforce that behavior
- Self esteem and an ability to cooperate spark from children learning to contribute to the family. (for example, they feel best when they can contribute to the family in realistic,tangible ways)
- Every child struggles with feelings of inferiority and powerlessness that they strive to overcome. Their striving is sometimes manifest in positive behaviors, and sometimes through negative behaviors.
- It is important for children to find positive ways to overcome their feelings of inferiority or powerlessness.
- Children need as many opportunities as possible to do things for themselves. Good parenting, in a way, is working yourself out of a job.
- When possible, allow natural consequences take the place of artificial ones.
- Try to plan for negative behaviors before they happen, and figure out a logical consequence ahead of time if possible.
- Family dinner time! It’s great!
- Family Dinner Time – This time should be set aside to have fun, wind down, and learn more about each-other
- Try to save “school” talks for another time (outside of dinner), that is what the child needs to unwind from!
- Pick you’re battles, and try to engage in a positive way with your child for every time you have a negative interaction. If at all possible, strive to have much more positive than negative interactions.
2 comments:
Awesome Kelty! I loved the idea about not talking about school at the dinner table, and that the dinner table should be a place to unwind.
I agree with every point you made. Now, I'm choosing the verb "agree", because I wanted to parent like you described and I wasn't always successful. None-the-less, we need the reminders . . . for the sake of our kids, for our OWN sakes. Conscious parenting takes some effort, but eventually makes the job much easier.
I love to read about what you're learning. I wish I could shadow you through graduate school. It's such an interesting field of study.
Love, Mom
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