Marrying a youngest child means I inherited older siblings. Which is great, because I'm clueless about parenting things.
How does a parent keep a strong relationship with growing children?
I like babies. I'm good with babies. But babies grow up and become kids. Young children aren't like babies or toddlers...especially strong headed, intelligent children with loud opinions...and I'm not quite sure how to treat my growing children like kids and not like adults. Have you ever experienced this?
They talk smart and act smart, and then when they start acting their actual age I have an immediate overreaction. Why aren't they behaving reasonably? Why aren't they predictable? Oh wait, I was thinking of them as adults, not kids.
And sometimes I worry that I treat them like adults too much on a non-disciplinary plane, too. What do growing kids need?
I'm listening. :)
3 comments:
Kids are hard!! I wish I had all the answers to your problems. As well as mine! I have found that consistancy is important, they need to have somewhat of a schedule and don't be afraid to tell them no! I have to remind myself frequently of their ages to calm myself down when they are being crazy. Read nutureshock, that really helped me. And just remember, you can do it!
It's never too late to find an orphanage and leave them there with a really nice note.
I really can't give any advice because I am about the worst dad I have ever observed. There isn't a day that I don't majorly screw up. When I stayed at home with them all day, the only way I could feel good about parenting was to spend as much time as possible outside. We skied, we rode bikes, we walked, we explored, they invented games, they fell in rivers, they wandered, and I didn't yell. When they spend all day outside, they are outside of the control of the garbage that is on tv and the mind control of children's movies. I also read to them for an hour or two every day. I read books that I wanted to read. It was good for them. I also started running like 10 miles a day in the evening when my wife got back from work.
ditto to Mike and Wendy!!!! I think my kids act like what they the watch on tv, so I really try to limit it.
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