5 Basic Parenting Skills all Parents Should Know

Regardless if your from New York or Philidelphia or Los Angeles, parenting is one of the toughest skillsets to learn. Even after a decade of parental service, you may still be trying to guess your way through to the best possible outcome. This is the norm, and if you are experiencing this as a new parent or an experienced parent, here are 5 basic parenting skills that all parents should know and will help you with parental leadership abilities.

5. Back Off. No individual want to have someone there at all time warning him or her about every possible mistake. Doing this may keep your child “safe” but it can tend to make him or her a miserable kid. By backing off and allowing the child to have their space and their own voice in some matters will be seen as a sign of respect that the child will often reciprocate. And, what parent doesn’t want their child to respect them? Guiding your child to a good life is very different from holding their hand the entire time, so back off a little and give them some respect, i.e. space.

4. Complimenting your Kids
This is definitely one parenting skill every parent should commit to, but not all do. Telling your kids how good they’re doing and complimenting them on their achievements does massive amounts of good to their confidence and ability to achieve again later on in life. The impact of compliments on your kids is a powerful one. Often you’ll hear someone say that they’ll never succeed. That’s probably due to the people in their life, and particularly their parents, telling them how awful their efforts are. By doing so, it makes the child more apt to fail, because that’s what’s expected of them.

3. Communication
Parents can forget how important it is to communicate with their children about everyday things, not just matters of extreme seriousness. Take the time to listen to your child’s opinion about a disagreement or something they’ve done and you might be taken aback by their logical assessment of the problem. Talking and LISTENING to your child will foster a relationship that makes it truly possible for them to talk to you about anything. Talking the time to listen and properly communicate can make all the difference in your future relationship.

2. Learn from the Past
Learning from your own mistakes as a parent can be tough, but a good start is by learning from your own parents’ mistakes. We all want to be the best parent we can be, the perfect parent, even though in reality we all know there’s just no such thing as “perfect.”

We are all going to make some parental mistakes along the way. Some may be worse than others, but the key is to learn from that mistake to make sure it never happens again. If you are trying to attain a certain behavior from your children and the method you’re using isn’t providing the result, stop doing it and adapt to your children’s behavior to get the wanted result. Think on your feet and learn from your mistakes.

1. Quality Time
In today’s age of high-speed internet and video games, the idea of quality has changed. Life is certainly very busy, and when you have a family things assuredly won’t slow down. In your children’s eyes there are two decisions that you make: to spend time with them or to spend time somewhere else…period. The more time you spend with your kids, the more they know you love them, but you’ll also get a deeper knowledge of what motivates them and what their future plans are. The more time you spend with your kids, the more your children will spend with their children; lead by example and that lesson will be taught through the generations.  Online parenting classes are an excellent resource for any parent.