The sign of great parenting is not the child’s behavior. The sign of truly great parenting is the parent’s behavior.
Parents everywhere get so worked up about how their child behaves in public, about how the child does not listen, how the child doesn’t tidy up after a play, or about the child being naughty.
Most parents forget they did the same things in their childhood.They forget to realize that kids are meant to behave like kids and not like adults. When my kids were younger, I would get worried about the house being such a mess especially when the kids were at play. My wise mom would reassure me with these words: ‘This is a home not a museum, a messy home is a sign that children are present and that they are having fun.’
Children are meant to mess up, and they are meant to be childlike in behavior and sometimes do things they want to. Yes, we have a responsibility to teach them order and good behavior, but it has to be by example.
As a parent, we need to have a clear line of understanding when to educate them. More importantly how we educate them.
Yelling at our child just because we are embarrassed if they are loud in a high-end restaurant shows that we need to improve our own behavior and not our child’s.
If the child is throwing a tantrum in a supermarket, instead of screaming at them, try diverting their attention to something else, or talk to them as if they are older, and explain to them what’s reasonable and unreasonable and why. And then let them choose.
As parents, when we behave as responsible adults, our children will behave as responsible children. Giving our children choices, educating them lovingly and enabling them to make right choices are all signs of great parenting.
When we are conscious and aware parents, we raise conscious and aware children.