The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Parents

Good article on popexpert written by Sarah Hamaker, Parenting expert

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Parents

Do you want to have a calmer, happier child-raising experience? Then you need to develop the habits of an effective parent. These commonsense principles can transform your parenting from ineffective to less stressful.

The first habit is to know that the child raises the child. As a parent, you have a roll to play—an important one—but you have to realize in the end, you are only guiding and advising your child. You cannot make your child’s heart change. You cannot make your child obey. You cannot make your child grow up to be whoever you think he should become. This is why children from good homes can turn out badly, while children from horrible homes can turn out well.

The second habit is to realize there’s no magic bullet when it comes to consequences. The fact of the matter is that as long as you do something on a consistent basis, it doesn’t matter what the punishment is. For some kids, timeout works wonders, but for others, timeout doesn’t. Parents often rush around doling out one consequence after another in the hopes that one will “work” and correct a child’s behavior. But the first habit points out the futility in that. We need to do something, and keep doing something, but the “something” can change from child to child or from misbehavior to misbehavior. Changing it up in discipline keeps your kids on their toes, too.

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