10 Highly Effective Parenting Tips

Each Child is an individual and none of the good parenting 'theories' work all the time. Good parenting requires the parents to be creative as well as knowlegdeable. People follow the parenting habits of their parents, which may or may not have produced excellent results. Good parenting requires that you use the parenting techniques of your parents that were effective while at the same time realizing where they went wrong. You should also learn from the experience of others, from the innumerable books and articles on parenting. However, you should remember that it was 'their' experience with 'their' child. You cannot afford to copy other people blindly where parenting is concerned. Even though there can be no hard and fast rules of parenting, the following tips have come from the wisdom of the ages and can be used as guidelines to good parenting.

1. Don't underestimate your child's capabilities. Given the proper environment and tools children can learn much faster than adults. Children learn their mother tongue within a very short period, along with most of its grammar and syntax, a feat unequalled in adulthood. When childrenn are very young they learn by making mistakes, because there is no pressure to perform, either from parents or teachers. Don't force young children to learn. Create a learning environment and let them learn at their own pace.

2. Avoid getting yourself into situations with your children where your patience is tested against the child's. You have to give up ultimately in most cases. Children can be very stubborn if they want to. They know intuitively that you will not go beyond a certain point. In such cases just do the opposite of what the child expects you to do.

3. Never bribe your child. It is counter productive in the long run. Tell childen what is espected of them and why. Tell them that we all have duties and responsibilities that come with the previleges we all enjoy. Discuss with them the pros and cons of doing or not doing something. Appeal to their innate goodness. Every individual including children like to feel good about themselves.