8 Things You Need to Know About Parenting

As parents, we are prone to the “guilt feeling.” And, most of the time, our precious kids are not always helping, showing resentment towards us when we refuse them their request for something- anything really!

Recently, I took an in-depth look at how I’ve performed as a parent so far−my parenting style, parenting skills I have garnered, some parenting advice I’ve come across, etc. (on a side note; my kids ages are 22, 20, 18, and twins 13). Since I've done a fair bit of parenting and have gone through all the stages of child's development−till they are now mature individuals−I've had a fair amount of parenting ups and downs.

During this soul-searching about my parenting style, I realized many flaws; I understand that I’ve made some mistakes with my kids−some of them I, unfortunately, repeat from time to time. I've felt so low, so discouraged and so bad about it. Unfortunately, I've ventured on that "I wish I had..." path. As I did that, comprehension of new and valid logical concepts of parenting slowly came into my focus and made so much sense to me.

Here are my realizations from my parental quest:

1. All Parents are Human: We, as a parents, are human and not machines (even machines fail). We are fallible, and therefore not perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. We all make mistakes.

2. Humans are Different: We are all different, and all our children are different and special in their own unique way. The most important thing is for us to consider each child as a different human being, an individual with his/her own quirks and faults.

3. Thorough Understanding of Your Children is Expedient: If your child has certain disabilities, learning difficulties or any other discomfort, and you take your time to find out how you can help your beautiful jewel. And then, most importantly, teach her/him to deal with it and accomplish things in spite of it. Yes! You’ve done a fantastic job!

4. You Need to Keep Learning: No one was born with a pedagogy degree, we all live and learn. If you’re willing to research, attend parenting classes, read about some parenting fails, enroll for parental guidance, seek parenting advice, then you’re doing yourself all lot of good. (NOTE: Nobody knows it all! You need to seek out the advice of experts so that you can be a great, adoring parent.).

5. Parenting is a continuous learning. Even when we, as parents, feel we know it all, something is bound to throw us for a loop (I’m sure you don’t want to find yourself in such situations).

6. Do Your Best to Love Your Children: I have made mistakes, but I have always done everything in my power, and with all my heart, to love my children, protect my kids, nurture them, help them, understand them, and raise them right. By loving your children and putting them first, you cannot go wrong in your parenting.

7. Don’t Compare Your Child with Another Child: Comparing your children with others kids is a big NO-NO! All children grow and develop differently, and at different rates. We've all been living with wrong assumptions that human beings can be put in a box and written a book/guide to follow. Every child, every person is different and has his/her own schedules, timeline, milestones that they follow. Just like every snowflake has its individual design, so does every child!

8. Accept Your Kids for Who They Are: Parents often think that their child's aptitude academic or athletic or any other skill, strengths provide a validation of their own intellect, skills, and parenting accomplishments. Nothing could be further from the truth. Parents tend to put more pressure on their kids and themselves by this parenting fail. The best way to handle your kids is to accept them for who they are, and you’re going to be a Superstar Parent!

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Do you have any of parenting tips you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments section below. If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you!