Growing up can be a challenge for kids. Many have to endure bullying, school pressure, friendship breakdowns and divorce.
For these reasons, it’s critical for parents to develop skills to support their children. But what, as a parent, can you actually do? Let’s find out.
Take Care Of Yourself First
Taking care of yourself first might sound like the opposite of what you should be doing when your child needs your support, but there is sound logic behind it. If you are in a good place yourself, you will be in a much better position to help your kid.
The principle of taking care of yourself applies in many areas of life. For instance, on aircraft, cabin crew always instruct parents to put oxygen masks over their own faces first before putting them on their children. The reasoning is simple: parents can’t fit oxygen masks to their children effectively if they are struggling to breathe by themselves.
It might be that you just need a two-minute breather before you clean up a spill, or you need help from your parents when you’re truly burnt out, or perhaps you just think that refreshing your knowledge with parenting websites can help (it’s a tough job, after all). Giving yourself that breathing room can mean everything.
Nurture Their Spiritual Side
Kids get thrown into the adult world whether they like it or not. They have to take society as it is, at face value, and find ways to cope with it. And that’s not always easy. As they grow up, they discover all kinds of horrors and pressures that they never expected.
In this environment, parents need to nurture their children’s spiritual side. Young people need mental and metaphysical tools that they can use to protect themselves against some of the harsher aspects of life. Knowing that there is something deeply mysterious and profound about the world reduces some of the terror associated with troublesome personal relationships and worries about the future.
Allow Open Communication
Children need confidantes - people they can go to to discuss the difficult aspects of growing up. Ideally, parents should fulfill this role but, unfortunately, that’s not always what happens. In many cases, children go to their peers, with less than ideal results.
If you really want to communicate with your kids on a deep level and always be there for them, then providing non-judgemental and open communication is vital. Children need to feel like they can come to you with any issue that’s bothering them. No topic should be out of bounds or feel awkward.
Get Support From The Community
Many parents believe that they need to do the job of parenting by themselves without any support from the community. But that was never how parenting worked in the past. Instead, children lived in large groups with the rest of the tribe.
Try reaching out to local people, family and friends and see if there are any opportunities to share the burden. Use a lawyer for child support services if you require one. Don’t just plod through, believing that you have to do it all by yourself. You don’t.
Help Your Kids Find Themselves
Everyone is different. We each have unique interests and attributes. To really be there for your kids, help them to become themselves. Find ways to enable them to build a life that makes sense for their character and personality.
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