5 Things Every Parent Needs to Know

There’s no rule book to parenting, unfortunately, but these 5 tips will help you understand how to be an even better parent. Sometimes having a “5 Things Every Parent Needs to Know” guide to follow is enough to help you become more confident in raising your child to feel happy and loved. 

1. Respect Their Privacy
   Of course, you want to know what is going on with your kids, but don’t snoop through their belongings. This breaks trust with them, and if they find out, they will fear sharing information with you even further. They might hide their diary, journal, phone, or anything else that they don’t feel comfortable leaving around anymore and might feel like they have to hide from you. This is never great for anyone in the situation, and if you are curious about what is going on in their life, it never hurts to ask.
   
   No one wants their belongings or messages looked through without knowing, so don’t do it to your kids, either. 

2. Gain and Maintain Trust and Respect
   As stated before, you don’t want to break trust with your kids. Once trust is broken, it’s much more difficult to repair. When your kids trust and respect you, they expect trust and respect in return. You shouldn’t demand anything from your kids with the reasoning “because I said so” or “because I’m the parent,’ especially if you want your kids to feel comfortable with you. Being a parent doesn’t automatically gain you respect, your kids are human beings and have feelings too, and they should be treated that way.

3. Encourage Open Communication
   After understanding the trust and respect aspect of your relationship with your kids, it’s much easier to have easy and open communication with them. When your kids trust and respect you, they won’t feel as hesitant to share information about their life with you. They feel comfortable and put trust in you. However, this goes both ways. Try not to get mad at them for hiding information or not telling you anything, but then also get mad at something they do tell you. It sends mixed signals for communication, and it might affect your kid’s comfortability in sharing details about their life with you. Having your kids feel comfortable communicating with you is not only great for your relationship with them but can help them gain wonderful communication skills as they get older.

4. Don’t Compare Your Kid to Other Kids
   No one likes to be compared to other people negatively, so why do it to your kids? You shouldn’t. This worsens their self-esteem and confidence. Rather than feeling down about your kid’s abilities or frustrated with their actions, try to be there for them and communicate to figure out what is going on. Being a support system and not tearing them down is a much healthier approach to this situation. 

5. Understand They Won’t Share Everything with You
   At the end of the day, no matter how much trust, respect, and open communication you have with your child, they aren’t going to tell you everything. And this is ok. It’s totally normal for your kid to not tell you everything, and you need to be ok with this. Maybe they’ll tell you when they’re ready, but maybe they won’t. Every child needs their own privacy, and respecting and understanding this will make it much easier on you.

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