Securing Our Future

So how does that work? Securing our future has a lot to do with our children. How we pay attention to them from a very young age. Every time I hear a sad story about a young person being involved in some type of trouble I wonder "how did this happen?" Often times we as parents get so busy trying to provide for our family that we lose touch with the important things. The following are some good points to help us be better parents.

Encouraging Good Behavior
Children learn behaviors and values mainly from their parents. Make sure your child is learning the right things!
Building Good Relationships
When you take the time to listen to your child, instead of brushing him or her off, you are building connections.
When you respond in a manner that validates his or her feelings instead of invalidating them, you are teaching her to be caring.
When you help him or her to choose appropriate actions, you are helping her to be more competent.
Our Role as Parents
Be Sensitive: We pick up the cues of our children and sense how they are feeling. We listen and empathize.
Responsive: We respond in ways that fit our child's cues. If the child is frightened, we comfort him. If he's intense, we calm him. But we don't excuse disrespectful behavior. Their limits are clear and enforced.
Reciprocal; There is give-and-take in the relationship. We as parents respect the child's emotions and teach him to consider thoughtfully the emotions of others.
Supportive and encouraging: We understand that learning to manage one's emotions takes time and effort. We must support and encourage our children as they practice.
These actions enhance children's development, foster a positive sense of self-esteem, and, most important, build healthy relationships.
The Twelve Disciplinary Elements
Pay attention to your child.
Respect your children and yourself.
Be reasonable, gentle, and firm.
Prevent and minimize problems through understanding, communication, and modeling.
Use positive reinforcement to encourage and reward proper behavior.
Teach ways to make choices.
Set reasonable personal expectations and goals for your child.
Set reasonable expectations for yourself and your family.
Communicate effective and reasonable limits.
Understand misbehavior.
Provide related, respectful, reasonable responses.
Be consistent.
I think being a parent is the hardest job one will ever hold and because of this we need to take and except all the help we can get.
A great website that I found on this subject is:
http://www.familyeducation.com/home/
My husband and I raised four healthy children and we did the best that we could with the knowledge that we had from our parents. Back in the 60's, 70's and 80's I have to admit it was alot different parenting then it is today. We certainly didn't have the internet and reference books that are available today. Does anybody have any idea the why? Let us hear from you.
Thanks and God Bless