Thursday, November 26, 2009

Parenting... easy with Patience

Easy & Enjoyable parenting happens, when you as parent exhibit lot of patience with the kid… it does not mean you will never lose patience, it should once in a while and not always… below are few ideas to keep your cool / patience in difficult situations:

  • Provide alternative options, when your kid is forcing or showing temper tantrums on particular thing. Kids - have low attention span, it's better to move their attention into something else, than trying to teach a lesson, by spanking or giving them some punishments
  • Create a "star" calendar system - in case of really bad behavior from the kid, give her a "0" and for good behavior's (even for situations out of tantrum) - give her a "star" (number of stars, could be up to 5 - depending on good behavior). Apply creative ideas - to allow your kid to use the star's as needed
  • Set short & long term celebration events to the kid - for example: make a promise to take your kid on a vacation or to her favorite amusement park in summer vacation - if she behaves well through the next few months. This helps in two ways - to control the number zero's you might get on the star & also you are teaching your kid to learn "goal setting" for her behavior & eventually for her career
  • Bring in random "surprise" elements for the kid - you need to show few elements of "new" or something exciting to your kid, it helps because… we are in the age of "innovation" & as many situations of "wow" or something new to kid… will help them cultivate the habit of discovery. It also helps you get lot of energy from this wow event from your kid to "refill your patience"

I'm thankful to my wife, Lakshmi - as she needs to go through single parenting during my travel times & she has learnt lot of these patience games in taking care of our kid - Aditya.

-Bhaskara