Young couples who have just brought their first child home and realize that parenting is a full-time commitment calling for a great deal of patience and mental strength turn to their parents and ask them “how did you do it? – How did you manage to bring-up three/ four/six children with fewer conveniences and resources than what we have today? ” Babies don’t come with “how to” manuals and parenting skills have to be learnt on the job, with a little advice from family, friends and various sites about being a parent on the internet. Once acquired, parenting skills still have to be adapted and fine tuned, depending on each child’s needs, as even within the same family no two children react the same way to a particular situation.

Here are some general pointers for every parent:

1. Maintain physical contact with the baby in the early days as this builds a natural bond. Talking to the baby, holding, and rocking the baby create a cocoon of love and reassure the child. Do it as often as you can, no matter how nervous and self-conscious you may feel. Babies also mimic what they see, so smile often.
2. As the baby grows, exercising patience becomes a vital part of parenting skills – right from allowing the baby to turn and crawl on its own to toilet training. Patience pays, by making the child agile, stronger, and more confident.
3. Establishing everyday routines creates a familiar structure that children understand though it takes some parenting skills and maturity to adhere to a routine without being overly rigid
4. As children grow older, communication becomes important. Toddlers can interpret not just the words used, but even the tone of voice, and facial expressions of their parents. Use sincere praise and the pat on the back to appreciate a job well done and to reinforce good conduct and non-judgmental admonition to discourage unacceptable behavior
5. The best parenting skill is to lead by example: children are far more observant than parents think and they learn more from what they see rather than from what they hear.
6. A final point to hone those parenting skills is to avoid comparing the child to other children, be they older siblings or children in the neighborhood.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 10:38 am and is filed under Helping People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.