How to Raise a Happy Child – 10 Effective Parenting Tips
Raising kids right can be hard and raising them in a way that they stay happy, and content is much more challenging. Parenting a child the right way and ensuring that he grows up to be happy cannot be merely done by providing him basics. To raise a happy child, you need to make certain changes in your parenting style.
It becomes necessary to know what makes a child happy if you want to see him grow normally. Here’s how you can ensure that your child grows up happy.
1. Positive Reinforcement
Kids need a lot of validation. For children, parents are the only moral compass they have to know whether they are doing a certain thing right or not. Positive reinforcement is necessary to raise a confident and happy child. This is why it is necessary to appreciate your child whenever he does something right. But do not praise him when he is wrong. False praise can be harmful; he may look for words of appreciation all the time, which could cause motivation related issues later in life.
2. Inculcating Behavior of Patience
Children are primed to be powered by instant gratification. And in today’s world, with everything being available at the snap of a finger, this need to satisfy any need at a moment’s notice is increasing day by day. It is important to let your kids understand the benefits of long-term enjoyment and just the basic fact that everything takes its own time. By inculcating the values of patience, your kids will stop being their own enemies in feeling sad and dejected and instead look forward to things in life.
3. Forming Good Relationships and Nurturing Them
Living life is personal, but the social aspect is what brings meaning to it. Family and friends bring a lot of happiness as well as memorable moments to cherish forever. Kids might bond easily with family and even with their friends. They also need to learn how to do that with acquaintances or even your neighbours. Your own love for your child should not come with a ‘conditions apply’ tag since he needs to rely on you in various matters. By developing relationships with others, it can further empower him in his identity.
4. Developing Kindness
Kids might be possessive in the early days and may not care about others in their life, except for immediate family. Over time, it is necessary for your kids to know that there is more to their life than just themselves. By cultivating empathy and kindness for others, they will begin to discover the happiness of a unique kind that only ever emerges from this. Have honest conversations with your kid when he tends to behave in a manner that is unbecoming of him. That will help him establish his own moral compass in the right way and gradually be kind.
5. Letting Your Child Be Independent
Certain parents get intensely overprotective about their children and tend to be constantly around them like a surveillance drone. This behavior can make kids irritated or make them excessively dependent on you. Rushing to stop your kid from doing something that’s wrong can be harmful to him in the long term, as long as the activity is not fatal. If your kid falls while playing, let him fall and cry for a while. He will gradually learn to dust himself up and start playing again.
6. Establish Proper Routines
At a young age, your child’s mind can be all over the place with the amount of stimulation he receives. That could get him confused and lose focus, causing him to constantly keep wondering what he’s doing. By helping establish a routine, your child can instantly know when to wake up, brush, eat, sleep, study, play, and all that. Having a routine also helps him develop a sense of achievement where he has done everything he needs to do in the day. A routine helps repeat activities beneficial to him, and this repetition helps manifest it into a good habit.
7. Working Towards Developing An Interesting Skill
Your child might seem to have a keen interest in a particular thing in his life. It could be as minuscule as collecting different types of leaves to something as complex as understanding how astronauts go into space. He could also be trying his hand at the piano or emulating dance moves by watching videos. Whatever it might be, allow him time to pursue it and guide him in getting better at it. They might not pursue the same skill later on in life, but they would know how to keep at it and get better.
8. Spend Fun-Filled Moments Together
Your child will cherish the memories spent with you the most. Make time to spend with him in various fun-filled activities. If he likes playing video games, join him on a match and play with each other as well as against each other. Try to disconnect from the role of a parent and an adult, and instead become a child and his friend, while simply enjoying the time with him. That will further strengthen the bond that you have, help develop trust between you both and make him open up to you more often.
9. Ensure That You Listen to Your Child
Many children do communicate their emotions to their parents. However, these are mostly looked at as the usual childhood rants or tantrums and easily ignored. Your child might then begin to develop a sense of not being wanted or inferiority. He needs to know that he can talk to you about anything and you will truly understand what he’s going through. Give him time, drop what you’re doing for a moment and listen to him even when he’s telling you what happened in his favorite cartoon episode.
10. You Need to Be Happy Yourself
No amount of games, parties, activities will work if you are an unhappy person yourself. Children tend to sense that a lot quicker than others and will tend to think that’s how life usually is. They might feel guilty if they do have something to be happy about. Happiness is contagious, so if you are happy, your child will be happy with you.
Raising a child to be a responsible young person and have a happy mindset is not an easy task. The right kind of feedback, interaction, and moderate guidance is how to make kids happy the right way. Being a parent, a team player, a friend, and a person he can always rely on will help your child develop his inner personality in a stronger way and make him an adult that you will be extremely proud of.
SHIJINA RIJESH