Being responsible for shaping someone’s personality and behavior is a heavy task. You surely don’t want to raise a narcissistic, insensitive, and entitled child.
But how do you make sure that doesn’t happen? That’s where positive parenting comes into play.
You might be asking yourself, ‘why is positive parenting important?’ ‘Is positive parenting effective?’ ‘How can parents help encourage the self-development and growth of their children with positive parenting?’
So, how can positive parenting encourage personal development? Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. In this article, I will share why positive parenting is so important and how this particular parenting style can encourage personal development.
Let’s start with what positive parenting is.
What is Positive Parenting?
Positive parenting focuses on building a happy, healthy, and mutually respectful relationship between you and your kids. Sounds great, but how do you do it? In a positive parenting style, you don’t use harsh punishments to discipline your toddler.
Rather you focus on giving them positive attention and fulfilling their emotional needs to prevent tantrums and bad behaviors from happening in the first place. But kids will be kids, and sometimes they’ll push your buttons.
The way you respond to their mistakes and misbehavior makes all the difference. In positive parenting, you stay calm and avoid negative discipline techniques(threatening, humiliating, bribing, and hitting) while correcting problematic behavior.
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How Can Positive Parenting Encourage Personal Development for a Child?
Positive parenting is an effective tool to encourage personal growth and raise a well-rounded child.
Do you want to know how?
Let’s do a walk-through of 8 ways positive parenting encourages children’s personal development, shall we?
Positive parenting Provides a Sense of Security.
In positive parenting, you establish clear rules and boundaries so that your child knows what to expect and what’s expected of them.
It adds more predictability to their life, reduces stress, and gives children a structure that gives them a sense of security.
Promotes Emotional Development
When you calmly respond to your kids’ big negative feelings instead of joining their chaos, it teaches them how to stay in control. By practicing positive parenting, you can teach them how to identify their emotions, name them and manage them appropriately.
When you validate their feelings instead of dismissing them, you teach them that feeling angry, sad, or scared is totally normal. By expressing your feelings calmly, you model the behavior you want to see in them.
It helps them learn how to cope with big feelings more appropriately and acceptably.
Reduces Behavioral Problems
Setting realistic and age-appropriate expectations teaches them to do the right thing. Positive parenting is based on clear communication between you and your kids. It helps them understand what’s expected of them and why.
It motivates them to cooperate and helps you raise a well-behaved kid.
Makes Kids Effective Communicators
Positive parenting encourages personal development by developing effective communication skills in kids. Since positive parenting promotes open communication, your kids feel safe and comfortable expressing their thoughts, opinions, and feelings clearly.
Positive parenting makes you actively listen to your kids without interrupting them. It teaches them that effective communication involves expressing their ideas clearly and letting others speak.
Strong communication skills help children develop strong bonds with their peers, make friends and resolve conflicts better.
Children Learn Empathy
Having empathy means being able to understand other people’s emotions and reacting accordingly. You can teach your kids an important skill by treating them with kindness and compassion.
When you take the time to listen to your kids instead of shutting them off, try to see things from their perspective, and show empathy towards others, your child learns by observing.
It helps them become more empathetic and teaches them how to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships with others.
Positive Parenting Boosts Confidence
Teaching your children real-world life skills and problem-solving skills gives them the confidence to deal with whatever life throws at them. Involving them in age-appropriate household chores helps them become more responsible and self-reliant.
When your kids know you’ve got their backs and love them unconditionally, they don’t fear failure and shy away from trying new things. Instead, it allows them to reach their full potential. They try to reach their goals not because they’re scared of you but because they want to.
Builds Healthy Self-esteem
Taking a step back and letting your kids do things independently instead of doing everything for them shows them you have faith in them. As a result, they realize their abilities and feel more powerful.
Your positive reinforcements will encourage your kids to have faith in themselves. Kids with positive self-esteem don’t get scared to take risks, as they are okay with making mistakes. Taking healthy risks allows them to learn many important life skills.
It Turns Them into Resilient Problem Solvers
Failures and setbacks are normal parts of life. Positive parenting helps a child learn to be resilient and bounce back from those failures and setbacks. When the fear of failure doesn’t drive your kids, they can work through their problems better and cope well with challenges.
When children have warm, supportive parents who encourage them not to give up, they learn to embrace mistakes and learn from them. When you take the time to brainstorm with them to find solutions to their problems, they improve their problem-solving skills.
Teaches kids Self Control
When you use natural and logical consequences to discipline your child, they start to understand the importance of following rules. It helps them develop self-control and decision-making skills.
When you explain the consequences of an action, they can either follow the rules or face the consequences. It prevents power struggles and your child from misbehaving in the first place. It also improves kids’ logical reasoning skills.
Children Learn to Be Grateful
Raising children with positive parenting strategies makes them more grateful, increasing their chances of happiness.
When you thank them for doing something nice, for example, helping around the house, you model gratitude yourself and make them feel valued and appreciated. It encourages them to say ‘Thank you’ whenever someone does something nice for them.
Expressing gratitude makes them more appreciative as they learn not to take things for granted.
How can positive parenting encourage personal development for parents?
Did you know that positive parenting skills encourage personal development for your children and can also help you achieve self-growth?
Let me tell you how that happens.
You Become More Considerate
Positive parenting techniques promote self-growth by reminding you to let go of your ego. It makes you consider your child’s opinion before making them do something just because you want them to do it.
Even though you’re the parent, positive parenting reminds you to make your kids a part of the decision process. It lets them know you value them and their opinion matters. A positive parenting approach reminds you that you are a part of the whole family.
You Become More Mindful of Your Actions
It’s no secret that kids mirror their parents’ behavior. To make them change their bad behavior, you need to start leading by example. They might not always listen to what you say but will surely imitate what you do.
Also, to rear children with high self-esteem, you must improve your self-esteem. They become more respectful towards you when you model mutual respect instead of yelling at them.
So, to make them more well-behaved, you start behaving better. To teach them to pull their weight around the home, you make sure to do your part right. Gradually, you become more mindful of what you say and do in everyday life.
Positive Parenting Improves Your Emotional Intelligence
Not using negative discipline techniques and punishing kids for bad behavior take immense self-control. Positive reinforcement to improve your kid’s negative behavior (even when angry) teaches you to manage your emotions positively.
Conclusion
As there’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to parenting, it can be hard practicing positive parenting all the time. It’s even harder to stay positive when your child misbehaves, throws a tantrum, or keeps doing whatever they want.
But if you can find a constructive way to deal with those behaviors, you’ll slowly but surely start seeing results. I know it’s not easy, but raising a respectful, happy, and empowered child is well worth it, right?
Good luck!
