The four A’s of Parenting — Colossalumbrella

Everyone aims to be good parents and improve upon our parenting skills. Parenting is a full time job, and sometimes it might seem like MORE than a full time job, but when getting down to it, we’ve to acknowledge that as parents, we’re going to make mistakes. One of the keys to good parenting is to recognize, accept and learn from our mistakes. Four A’s of parenting are here to add value to our parenting techniques.

Most days conversations with our children is mostly about giving orders for doing something or not doing something. It is an important task to teach them what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour but regular check on a few things could make our life easy and parenthood journey enjoyable.

Broadly, there are four A’s that point to traits of good parenting

Availability Be available for your kid. Yes, these are busy and busier times but you should never be too busy for your children, particularly when they need you. This is probably the most important A’s of Parenting. Trick is to not only be available when they say they need you, because chances are high that they won’t come right out and say it. Offer yourself to them and let them know that you’re available to them. Let them know that they’re important to you, as they should be. Dedicate a reasonable amount of your time every day to spending with them. Don’t just give them the leftovers when you’re dead tired from a day at work, but give them quality time. That could even be just watching a most favored Television program with them or reading them a book or going for a short walk with them. Spending time doesn’t necessarily mean spending money on them, because among the best things you can give them won’t cost you a penny — your love for them, where you shows it plus they can feel it and realize you are always there as backup.

Don’t underestimate the influence of little things.

Read here how story telling could help you connect with your child.

Appreciation

Another important A of parenting is Appreciation. The strongest drive towards good behaviour in kids is appreciating them for good behaviour. When a child does well at something, express your appreciation for them. When they do something nice for you, show your appreciation for that. Everybody likes to be valued, and kids are specifically very sensitive to this. Appreciation also helps them make that maturing determination of what’s right and what’s wrong, based on how valued they feel when appreciated.

A short note or a sweet token of surprise would do wonders for your children.

There is no power greater than true affection which makes it an important part of our list of A’s of parenting. The more you value good deeds, the more your child’s behaviour will be in accordance with what you want and expect. Most of us wants to be loved, especially children. They’re continuously searching for ways by which they can be loved by you. You are their primary focus and because of it they would like to please you by their very nature. You’ll need to be aware that love is the basis and foundation of a positive relationship with your children.

Acceptance

We all want to be accepted and children are no different. You should go out of your way to show that you offer unconditional acceptance for them. This provides them with a level of self-worth and can help to keep their self-esteem level high as well. As parents we need to push our children from time to time but we don’t want them to feel that they need to prove themselves to us for acceptance. We should be able to express that we believe in them no matter what and motivate them to achieve their goals in a very positive way.

The four A’s of parenting are important and every parent would have their own ways of incorporating and enforcing them. I always feel that there is no such thing as best parenting since we are different and situations change our thoughts, movements and actions. As parents we aim to grow happy, responsible and healthy children who will grow up and become well-adjusted individuals.

Do share your thoughts and leave a comment below. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Originally published at https://www.colossalumbrella.com on May 1, 2019.