5 Parenting Tips for New Parents

Introduction

Imagine meeting a strict principal to seek admission and your four-year-old son starts to dance his heart out. He’s just got excited by the folk beats from a festive procession outside the school campus. While he is at it, does he care about these 5 parenting tips for new parents?

And your daughter meanwhile, stares deep into the spectacles of the principal making sure her mascara and lip-stick are pretty and intact. The principal with all her experience and understanding might shrug it off. 

But, is there a way…is there a surefire way to nurture a slightly better conduct with your wonderful children? Let’s talk about that in a bit,  but before that, shall we imagine the below situation. 

Years down, when you are having a heart-to-heart conversation with your now grown ups, they are thanking you for imbibing a few fine virtues right at the roots of their education. 

In  that exact hope and context, here are 5 cents. You may take  these with a pinch of salt / or a pack of salt biscuits:

Reflect and Find

It is so easy for someone to write and say these parenting tips will help new parents. The challenge is actually when one is in a real situation.  

For example, you may have guests at home while your child is the centre of all attention. The mood is all happy until the child  is upto a certain mischief – you give a cold stare and boom! the child bursts out in tears and cries her heart out.

The emotion is so loud that it could become a hot topic at your neighbour’s next tea party. 

A happy turned avoidable-situation as this could have been avoided. How?

 Well, the secret is perhaps within.

 If, for a moment, you can reflect and go down the memory lanes of your childhood –  within all that nostalgia, you may recollect a bunch of your emotional triggers, nuances and patterns of response to a given situation. Now, with such  awareness you  sure are in a better place to handle a similar situation with your child.

‘The child is the father of the man’ said William Wordsworth. He sure was in your shoes at some point, wasn’t he?

Practice Patience

How many times have we seen such cute quotes on our Instagram and Facebook feed:

“Aww baby, don’t grow up so fast!’ 

‘These days are long but years are short’

‘..little feet won’t be little forever’

Well, cliché yes, but aren’t these like hard truths? We cannot deny that the sun rises in the east, we most perhaps cannot deny these above quotes as well. Children do grow up real fast but there will be days and phases where you may lament, ‘damn! this is like forever!’

The days when your child has no-chill in wanting something. The events that you keep missing, the adjustments that you keep making, It is in these exact types of moments where patience is a holy virtue. 

Like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger(calmer) and powerful you become. 

Talking about exercise, what about you? Are you taking care of yourself?

Be There

You and your spouse are downright the most important people in your child’s life. The very reason your little wonder is on this wonderful planet. If not for too much, does it make at least little sense to consistently spend quality time with your kids?

Here are 6 simple ways to spend quality time with your children:

1. Play games that you both can enjoy 
2. Eat together as much as possible 
3. Narrate stories with good morals 
4. Create a crafty art-piece together 
5. Listen deeply with an open mind 
6. Go for early morning walks

Simple as they seem, these activities do play a vital role in the development and growth of children. Like social skills, cognitive skills, deeper bond between you and the child and well, you tell us more and better maybe? 

Appreciate Often

It is astoundingly fascinating how genuine appreciation boosts a child’s morale. 

‘Appreciation is the highest form of prayer’ said Alan Cohen, the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Earlier, we talked about an incident where you’d stare at the child resulting in an emotional outburst. It is funny how happy the same situation could be with a certain appreciative vein.

In the exact same scenario, imagine appreciating the child for the skill in pulling off that mischief. Then playing along and leading a corrective course. Child is happy, you’ll are happy and so is the home! 

Easier said than done but not too complex as well or is it?

Be a Good Example

All said and done, it matters little if you are a chalk and expect your child to be cheese. Parents are the first role models for their children and so many quirks and behaviour patterns get subliminally rooted within the child. 

So let’s just close saying for example, be a fine example, yeah.

On a Parting Note…

The very fact that you’ve stood through these parenting tips reflects your immense love for your child. Take a bow for the effort. If one phrase or one thought from this conversation does help you somewhere or at some point in time, the purpose is served. 

Should you be looking at ways as to how our school helps to serve such purposes and more, do feel free to connect with us.