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Challenge: Walking the Talk

Facts you should know about good parenting

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Raising a bright, healthy child is one of the most challenging tasks a parent can have and one of the most pleasant. Yet many of us don't compare parenting with the same center we would use for a job. We may act on our gut feelings or just use the same parenting methods our own parents used, whether or not these were practical parenting experiences.

Parenting is one of the most studied fields in the field of social psychology. Whether your parenting method or your parenting issues or concerns may be, from helping your kid avoid becoming part of America's child obesity disease to dealing with behavior difficulties, experts can support.

What are the ten laws of good parenting?

1. What you do matters. Whether it's your health behaviors or how you use other people, your kids learn from what you do. "This is one of the essential policies," Steinberg explains. "What you do does a difference...Don't just reply on the spur of the moment. Question yourself, What do I want to achieve and is this likely to create that result?"

2. You cannot be too concerned. "It is just not possible to spoil a kid with love," Steinberg writes. "What we usually think of as the result of spoiling a kid is never the effect of showing a child too much love. It is normally the consequence of giving a child something in place of love -- something like leniency, reduced expectations, or material properties."

3. Be interested in your child's life. "Being an engaged parent needs time and is hard commitment, and it often means rethinking and shifting your priorities. It often means losing what you want to do for what your kid needs to do. Be there psychologically as well as physically."

Being connected does not mean doing a child's study -- or correcting it. "Homework is an instrument for teachers to identify whether the kid is learning or not," Steinberg says. "If you complete the homework, you're not letting the teacher understand what the child is learning."

4. Change your parenting to fit your child. Keep speed with your child's progress. Your kid is growing up. Think how age is affecting the child's behavior.

"The same approach for independence that is getting your 3-year-old say 'no' all the time is what's causing him to be toilet trained," writes Steinberg. "The same mental growth spurt that is getting your 13-year-old curious and interested in the classroom also is getting her argumentative at the dinner table."

5. Install and set rules. "If you don't control your child's behavior when he is growing, he will have a hard time learning how to control himself when he is older and you aren't around. Any moment of the day or night, you need always be able to explain these three questions: Where is my kid? Who is with my kid? What is my kid doing? The practices your child has received from you are going to develop the rules he applies to himself.

"But you can't micromanage your kid," Steinberg notes. "Once they're in middle school, you require to let the kid do their own homework, make their own decisions and not intervene."

6. Encourage your child's independence. "Setting borders helps your kid develop a sense of self-control. Promoting independence supports her in developing a sense of self-direction. To be strong in life, she's going to need both."

It's natural for kids to push for autonomy, says Steinberg. "Many mothers mistakenly compare their child's independence with rebelliousness or violation. Kids push for independence because it is part of personal nature to want to feel in power rather than to feel controlled by someone else."

7. Be logical. "If your rules vary from day to day in an irregular fashion or if you enforce them only intermittently, your child's misconduct is your fault, not his. Your most powerful disciplinary tool is flexibility. Recognize your non-negotiables. The more your weight is based on wisdom and not on power, the less your child will test it."

8. Avoid harsh punishment. Parents should never hit a child, under any circumstances, Steinberg says. "Kids who are spanked, hit, or slapped are more prone to struggling with other kids," he writes. "They are more likely to be bullies and more likely to use attack to solve conflicts with others."

"There are various other ways to discipline a kid -- including 'time out' -- which work better and do not involve offensive."

9. Define your rules and decisions. "Good mothers have expectations they want their kid to live up to," he writes. "Usually, parents overexplain to young kids and underexplain to adolescents. What is visible to you may not be evident to a 12-year-old. He doesn't have the advantages, judgment, or experience that you have."

10. Treat your kid with respect. "The best method to get respectful manner from your child is to treat him respectfully," Steinberg writes. "You should provide your kid the same courtesies you would give to anyone else. Talk to him politely. Respect his view. Please pay attention when he is talking to you. Treat him kindly. Try to please him when you can. Kids treat others the way their fathers treat them. Your connection with your kid is the reason for her relationships with others."

For instance, if your kid is a picky eater: "I don't think parents should make a big deal about eating," Steinberg says. "Kids develop food choices. They often go through them in stages. You don't want to use mealtimes for unpleasant causes. Simply don't make the error of substituting unhealthy foods. If you don't keep junk food in the home, they won't try it."

Cathy Dehart is a writer based in Austin, Texas. For more of her work, you can find at olansi air purifier website the trusted service provider.

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