Being a parent is never easy, but the busy and modern lives that we lead nowadays has made things much more complicated than before. Some parents have even sought the help of these online counseling degrees to help their children grow up in an ideal home environment that is optimized for healthy upbringing. While not all of us will actually go for counseling programs online, here are five pieces of family counselor advice that is often given to new parents that hopefully will provide you some relief and guidance.
Children Will Behave Like Children
Here’s a fact that will change how you think about your children’s mistakes forever; most human brains are incapable of proper logical reasoning and controlling impulses up until they reach their early-mid 20s. It doesn’t mean that children can’t do it, it’s just that the younger they are, the harder it is for them to control their impulses or think very logically. This is why it is important not to lose your patience with their immature behaviors, because they are truly immature in every sense of the word.
Take Note of the Developmental Stages
We often end up concentrating so much on teenagers and their transition to adulthood that we end up missing the various developmental stages which children go through much earlier. In truth, they are more important in shaping the future personality of a child. Whenever there’s significant change in the lifestyle of the child, take note of it and keep a close eye on him/her to help with the transition and cater to any problems he/she might be facing during those periods.
The Importance of Playtime
Very few parents fully realize the impact which play time has on their children. We are not talking about controlled, sustained and structured playtime, but unstructured and uncontrolled playtime where he/she is able to explore things completely on his/her own. Having a few friends during that playtime also helps the child to learn social skills. It has been confirmed that children who have a lot of unstructured playtime to enjoy, learn things better and faster than the ones who don’t.
They Act as You Do
What parents think is that children do as they are told, or at least they should. In truth however, children do as you show them. Be careful with how you act in front of young children because their impressionable little minds will copy and reflect those behaviors.
Talking and Listening
This is what therapists and counselors do; they talk and they listen. You must also let your child talk and listen to what they have to say because it’s immensely therapeutic for the child. After all, it’s not only the adults who need to talk to feel lighter.
The key lies in the thought process of the parents and unfortunately, social conditioning has led us to believe that a child who behaves well and listens to his/her parents is the ideal child. The fact is that those are just things that makes life for adults easier and has little to do with a healthy upbringing. Give them attention, but don’t try to control every aspect of the child’s personality or life.
This is a guest post.