Great Parenting Tips For Moms

parenting

I was recently going through a stack of old magazines (they pile up and sit there for ages, don’t they?) and saw a great article in Parents Magazine from December of last year called The 50 Best Ever Tips for Moms. Talk about good stuff! Here are a few of the ones I think are gems:

1) Play with your children: well, duh! But, truly, it’s easy to forget to play when the dishes are piling up, the laundry needs doing and the house is, in general, a complete mess. Who has time to play? I find myself skipping important play time in favor of doing things, and not because I want to do whatever those things are but because I feel I should do them. You can “should” yourself to an early grave! Just let it go and play.

2) Set boundaries and stick to them: it’s not to be mean or unloving, in fact kids crave limits – it lets them feel safe within those limits to really explore.

3) Let your child be your child: if she wants to put her own clothes on, let her. If she wants to put her books away and not necessarily in the order you want, let her do it anyway. Giving her the freedom to have an acceptable amount of responsibility gives your child a good sense of self-esteem.

4) Always tell the truth: it’s what you want back from them, so model it.

5) Fess up when you blow it: if you have to apologize, apologize. It’ll not only teach them how and when to apologize themselves, but it shows respect and if you want respect back from your child, you’ll need to model that behavior.

And those are just 5 of the tips. I could go on and on! What strikes me about these tips is that they help a parent instill a sense of being a responsible, loving person in their child. It’s easy to shower a kid with love or even with lots of rules, but finding a combination of the two is challenging.

A very wise man once said, “if you want to change your children, change yourself.” Good to keep in mind even before you get to the having to change part…

photo credit: Robert Whitehead