Close families don't just happen, they are created just as any close relationship is formed with love and respect. While you shouldn't necessarily aim to be your child's best friend (after all it is not the job of you best friend to be responsible for your well being) , you do want to be someone that they can rely on in good times and not so good times. How do you get the mix right? It's all about your attitude towards your children.
Desmond Tutu said, "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."
Parents, you can help your gift grow into the best family ever by choosing the three resolutions below. Find out what they are and how to keep them.
"Acting is just a way of making a living: the family is life." Denzel Washington.
What did Desmond Tutu and Denzel Washington have in common? Could it be their belief in family? Or their respect for family life? Or their joy in a close-knit, loving family? Whatever their similarities, you can have all three when you make the following resolutions. All they take are a little time, a loving heart, and commitment to make your awesome family even better.
The Three Best Resolutions Ever:
1. Bond with your children everyday.
Great relationships need nourishment. Nourishment comes in these three forms:
*Attention
*Appreciation
*Affection
To create these bonds is easy. Just listen to your children's ideas, praise the good they do, and give lots of hugs.
2. Discipline with Kindness and Firmness.
This isn't difficult either if you resolve to think before you speak. Your words and actions should be serious and respectful.
Kind Discipline avoids breaking your children's spirit. Frederick Douglas once said, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair a broken man."
Firm Discipline also think before speaking so that you say only what you are willing to do. Your discipline should be the least needed to change your child's behavior, nothing more. This gives your child a sense of fairness and a sense of security.
3.Hold Family Meetings.
Family Meetings give your children a voice. Family Meetings teach them to solve family problems and to commit to making the family better. You'll be proud of your children, proud of yourself, and build character too.
Desmond Tutu and Denzel Washington have it right. Family is life and a gift from God. Bond with your children everyday, discipline with kindness and firmness, and hold family meetings. You'll be building strong children and creating a better life for you, your children, and all those whom your family touches.
Create the best family ever!
Commit to these 3 parenting resolutions!
Become a Character Builder!
You could print out the parenting resolutions and put them near your desk or on your noticeboard so that you are regularly reminded of what exactly you are striving for in the cut and thrust of everyday parenting.
