Positive parenting gives rise to a warm parent-child relationship. Additionally, it also helps children grow into positive, confident and responsible adults.
What would be your reaction if your child refuses to set the dinner table tonight? Will you lash out saying it’s her duty or even worse wack her? How about avoiding all the drama and making it into a positive situation instead? Ask her to cut the salad and you set the table for tonight. Swapping the job will not only teach your child responsibility but will also make her feel involved. What you just read is an instance of positive parenting and this approach is picking up speed across the world.
Positive Parenting
Positive parenting is the practice of nurturing a continual relationship with your child. You lay the foundation for a positive relationship by caring, leading, providing, teaching, and communicating with them. This approach will help you inculcate a proper attitude in them. Building a healthy bond with your kids is important because it will help them grow into happy human beings.
Instead, if you resort to punishing, shaming and smacking every time they misbehave, it can take a toll on their brain development and mental health. According to a 2018 study by UNICEF India, the inability to build a positive relationship with kids and a lack of involvement can have negative effects on them. It can make kids vulnerable to behavioural and emotional problems in the long run. The study was titled ‘Examining Parenting Approaches and Practices in Early Childhood Years.’ As parents, you must remember that authoritarian parenting is a practice of the past. Now is the time to embrace positive parenting.
"An empathy-based approach with firm compassion, focusing on responding to a child’s emotions underlying challenging behaviours, within the framework of how our interactions now are part of forming a lifelong relationship with our child”.
Psychologist Emily Edlynn speaking to BBC last year
Here are a few ways to build a positive relationship with your kids:
- Start young – since the early years in a kid’s life lay the foundation for their growth and development.
- Praise their behaviour when you catch them doing something good.
- Assign kids chores and recognise their effort afterward. If you feel something isn’t right, don’t be overly critical instead, help them get it right the next time.
- When making requests or giving them instructions use kind words, gestures and tones.
- Look for opportunities to spend time with family so the kids develop a bond with both the parents. Try reading books, playing board games or cooking in the kitchen together sometimes.
- Kids often draw parallel from parents’ behaviour hence be wary of your actions. For instance, if you restrict their screen time don’t use your devices till they go to bed.
- Discuss solutions to problems both at home and school. Don’t resort to a blame game.
- If you sense something wrong, ask about your child’s concerns and worries. Help them deal with the problems.
- Discuss their ideas and life ambitions and help them achieve them.
- Be available to your kids. Events, games, performances, and activities are important for them. Be present and encourage them.
This approach to parenting is beneficial to both parents and the kids. It helps parents form a strong bond with kids. And when it comes to kids, it establishes a sense of responsibility in them and helps them grow into positive individuals. Positive parenting also helps kids grow into confident adults with good emotional intelligence.