What’s Your Parenting Goal?
A new year is beginning! It’s time for new hopes and expectations for better things to come! And that can also include improving your parenting style. A lot of us have goals we strive for in our lives. Why not include a parenting goal for the new year? I’m sure we all have areas in our parenting we’d like to improve.
The process of adopting a goal involves taking time to decide on one and working toward achieving it. Let’s look at an example. If you feel you yell too much at your children, your goal could be to find other ways to get their attention. Some ideas could include: talking less and enforcing consequences more, counting to ten and breathing deeply before dealing with an issue, or giving children positive attention before bad behavior creeps in. Your goal, as well as your way to achieve it, should not be complicated. Otherwise, you will give up on it after a time. If you are not sure how to achieve your goal, there is all kinds of helpful information out there—your ECFE instructors, parenting books and reputable, research-based websites. Checking the progress of your goal from time-to-time is important. Are you on track? Do you need to refresh or revise your goal?
Being a parent is one of the most challenging tasks you will ever undertake. Parenting is a process of ups and downs but the consistency of following along the path will pay off in the long run. The “goal” of parenting is to work yourself out of a job! Remember this as you help your children reach their goals and achieve independence.
Jill Phillips
ECFE Parent Educator