Archive for the 'Parenting Tips' Category

Having a well behaved child starts with the parents. Children aren’t born bad, they learn it from their environment and surroundings.

An active and attentive parent, who sets good examples, and enforces the child’s boundaries is all the child needs to make good choices in life.

The first step to having a well behaved child is to spend time with him or her. Many children were act out or misbehave just to get attention, because they learn that the only attention they get is negative, and that beats no attention at all.

By spending time with your child, you’re giving them their much needed attention, as well as keeping them busy and out of trouble for that moment.

It isn’t difficult to spend time with your child. You can just talk to them for a few minutes every day, with no interruptions, even if they have nothing to say.

Ask about their day, what happened in school. This way you’ll learn about their life and the things they’re doing when you aren’t there. Be careful not to be judgemental.

Of course, we all know that there is no way that your kid can dress herself overnight; everything must be handled in small steps, and one of the first things you must teach your child is to be a responsible person.

Don’t we all hate that John who said that he would turn up with the tickets, but didn’t? What about Jane, who promised to baby-sit for you this time, but didn’t even bother calling to inform you that she was held up?

You as a parent have to start teaching your kid to be responsible for what she does, when she is still very young; she can start by handling some small tasks in and around the house.

She can then move on to loading the dishwasher, or drying the plates after they are washed.

At the same time, she must also be taught to be responsible for herself. Part of this responsibility includes dressing herself. Here are some tips for you if you do not know how to do this:

Lucy’s story: I ran into Lucy recently, and she appeared to be extremely tensed about something. We sat down over a cup of coffee, which is when she confided to me: her daughter, who had been overweight even as a six year old, was obese now at seventeen, and had just been diagnosed as being a diabetic.

Lucy burst into tears, and told of her frustrated efforts at trying to control her daughter’s weight, with no evident results.

Obesity, an alarming problem today

Obesity is today an alarming problem among teenagers of the world, and one hears more and more cases of teen obesity today than ever before. If you are the parent of an obese teen and would like a few tips on how to handle this serious problem, then read on.

What causes obesity? First and foremost, remember that obesity starts during early childhood, and can be the result of poor eating habits, lack of exercise, family history of obesity, endocrinal conditions, stress in the child’s life, emotional problems like depression and low self esteem.

The complications arising from obesity are many, like diabetes, blood pressure, respiratory problems and heart disease.

Most of us agree on the need to teach sexual awareness to our children. The thing is, most of them seem pretty aware already.

Teens with raging hormones can’t seem to get sex off the brain, needing little more than a suggestive picture, commercial, pair of dirty socks or acne gel to spark the awareness.

Kids also are constantly exposed to sex by the media. With the birth of Jamie-Lynn Spears’s daughter, Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, pregnancy pacts in schools and movies like “Juno,” teen pregnancies seem normal.

Whether the pacts or movies are real or fodder for gossip, the fact remains that kids are surrounded by sex and possibly getting mixed messages.

Talking to your kids about sex again, for the first time, or in a new way is more important now than ever. The U.S. teen pregnancy rates have risen for the first time in years, three in 10 girls become pregnant before age 20, and 47 percent of high school students have had sex.

When initially stressing out over how to begin your sex chat, consider what message you are trying to send.

Perhaps you prefer to teach abstinence, or safe sex and contraception, or the right time to become sexually active.

Having trouble getting your kids to eat? It’s common for kids to be picky and, as long as they meet nutritional guidelines within a week, there’s no need to worry about when they eat and what.

The Mayo Clinic suggests the following:

• Respect your children’s hunger, or lack thereof. If they’re not hungry, don’t force them to eat.
• Be careful not to give them snacks or juice an hour before a meal. They’re more likely to eat if they’re hungry.
• Don’t force your children to clean their plates. Let them eat until they’re full.
• Set a good example. If your kids see you eating a variety of healthy foods, they’re more likely to follow your lead.

It can be tough to recognize allergy problems in kids since many may seem similar to other conditions.

If you suspect your child may be experiencing adverse reactions to common triggers such as dust, fungus, foods, animals or latex, check out the American Academy of Pediatrics’ “Guide to Your Child’s Allergies and Asthma” to help identify symptom patterns in your child.

Read more at SouthCoastToday

Making friends is one of the most important social skills your child will learn.

Attempting to make friends, your little one will communicate with others by telling stories and jokes and exchanging secrets.

However, your child may choose friends who you might feel are bad influences.

Parents can find themselves telling their child not to play with these friends. Let your child know the consequences of exhibiting their friend’s negative behaviors.

There is another way for parents to influence children to make positive choices regarding friends.

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests, “In most cases a better strategy is to reinforce positive friendships with other children whose behavior and values meet with your approval.

Encourage your youngster to invite these children over to your house to play. Try to arrange activities that are fun and enjoyable.” Hopefully this will encourage your child to seek out positive playmates.

Source: Savannahnow

Healthy habits for regular exercise and a good diet start at home, and they should start at a young age.

The American Heart Association offers these suggestions to help your child stay healthy for life:

• Set a good example by living a healthy lifestyle yourself.
• Make exercise a family activity that involves everyone. Make family time for exercise every day, choosing sports and games that everyone enjoys.
• Set a limit on the amount of time your child spends watching TV, playing video games, or on the computer.
• Set goals for your child, such as a certain amount of daily physical activity or limits on the amount of unhealthy foods allowed.
• Encourage and reward good behavior, but never with food.
• Have a healthy dinner as a family every night.
• Teach your child to read food labels, and to recognize which foods are healthy and which aren’t.

Source: Yahoo News

One of the most important things to teach children is respect. Remember that respect is different from obedience.

Because children fear of parents, they may obey you, but if they respect you, then they will know what the best you are expecting from them.

Respect means not only the respect giving to parents, but it is the respect towards everything. They should feel respect towards everyone and everything.

In order to teach your children respect, the best way is to show the respect. When they feel respect, they can understand what respect means and how important the respect is.

Being respectful to others helps the kids to succeed in life and if they are not respectful with their peers, others, or themselves, it is difficult for them to be successful in their life.

If you have respectful children, then they can take care of belongings, responsibilities, etc. School teaches respect to the children, but the children have influence of parents.

So, it is your responsibility to make your children respectful. Unless and until you show respect to children at home, they cannot show it to others.

We resort to bribing children some or the other time. Bribes are gifts or rewards that influence children to do a specific action.

But, it rapidly becomes addictive for the child and the behavior becomes more and more scandalous in the expectations of achieving better and better rewards.

So, for parents who are looking for an alternative to defeat the effects of bribery, here are a few tips:

• Make use of those words with which your child can able to understand your feelings of upset. Never assume that your child knows the reason why you are upset and unhappy.

• If something goes wrong with the child, make her realize the mistake and ask the child to say sorry immediately.

• Instantaneously responding to the incident ensures that your child realizes her behavior to be intolerable. It is good to educate kids about the “good” and “bad” deeds.

• Never feel guilty of your behavior towards scolding your child. It is an obligation to teach your child the right manners and proper behavior. It is great if you calmly observe the child and take an appropriate consequence to the incident.

Parents with children, who are school going, generally complains about their inability to make their children study for sometime with concentration.

If it is exams time then it is more tough time for the parents to get their children sit down and study.

Some children are not that motivated and some have short attention span, which cannot make them to focus on studies for more time.

Children with this short attention span do not have patience to listen or wait until their turn to talk. Also, it is hard for them to complete the task left in the middle if they are interrupted.

If your child has short attention span, you need to create a comfortable atmosphere for your child where there is a chance of improvement in the attention span.

Tips to improve attention span in your child!

Instead of forcing your child to study, it is better for you to set a study routine for your child, so that they will not feel the studies as burden.

Set fixed timings for sleep also, but before doing so remember to know when your child feels easy to concentrate; is it the early mornings or in the late evenings. Accordingly, you set the sleep timings for your child.