It’s a known fact that in today’s time, technology has made our lives much easier. As a result of that, most of us are living a fast-paced lifestyle. Whether it’s work, studies or personal interests, most of the things demand a lot of our time. Naturally, families are finding it difficult to spend time together. So in such a scenario, raising children can get really challenging and overwhelming. There’s a need for adequate parenting in this 21st century to not only help children with their developmental needs but also their social and emotional needs. Here are some of our best tips on 21st century parenting.
Find Time For Your Kids
It’s important for families to spend quality time together. If you’re a working parent, it’s easy to get carried away with your work while forgetting to watch over your kids all the time. When you give your children your undivided attention, it helps in their development, both mentally and emotionally. Talking to your kids should be an important part of your everyday schedule. When you spend time with your children, they feel wanted and loved, and that increases their self-esteem. Remember that along with your child’s physical needs, catering to their mental health is equally important.
Spending time with your children and doing activities as a family is an integral aspect of 21st century parenting.
You don’t have to take them out on expensive trips to make them feel loved. Just simple everyday activities like watching a movie together, playing a sport with them, or reading their favorite books are a great way to bond with your kids. Let’s not forget that by finding time for your kids, you’re building the grounds for open communication. So your children will also be more comfortable sharing their experiences at school as you’ll become more like a friend than a parent.
Get Creative With Parenting
How many times have you asked your children to pick up their toys and in the end you yourself had to do the task? Most parents will agree to this experience wherein they try to give their children a task but that is not taken seriously. That’s when you need to understand that you have to get creative with your 21st century parenting to get through your children. You’ll be surprised to know how creative parenting can have a positive impact on your child.
And what’s better than involving your child in various activities? There’s surely nothing better than family games and movie nights to strengthen your bond with your child. You can have family games like monopoly, dumb charades, etc. every once in two weeks or so. Otherwise listening to your child’s favorite music together or reading their favorite books are other ways to bond with your child. The more time you spend with your child, the more your emotional attachment increases.
Acknowledge Your Child’s Accomplishments
As parents, it’s important that you acknowledge your child’s significant accomplishments. It can be something big like your child participating in a piano recital or learning to do simple chores at home. Remember that every child learns at their own pace. So see to it that you avoid comparing your child with other children. Don’t forget to praise and acknowledge your child’s entire process of trying to achieve something rather than just focusing on the victory.
When you acknowledge your child’s progress or efforts by showing confidence in them, they tend to feel more confident about themselves. For example, if your child is keen on learning cricket or football, you can encourage them to join a sports team. Similarly, if your child lost a quiz competition in school, you can encourage them to participate again the next year. That way you’re teaching them to value effort and hard work over competition and results.
Help Your Child Become Independent
It’s natural for you to want to do everything for your child, whether it’s tying their shoelaces, packing their school bag, or feeding them. But as a parent, you also have to keep in mind that in today’s time, it’s important that children become independent. It helps increase their self-esteem and self-confidence. And as they grow, they learn to solve their problems on their own instead of relying on you for everything. It’ll take your child some time to get accustomed to making decisions on their own or take up new responsibilities. You can always communicate with them and let them know that you’re there for them when they need you.
Depending on the age of your child, you need to hunt for opportunities that can let them do things on their own or make independent decisions. If your child is a toddler, you can start by making them brush their teeth on their own and teach them to keep their toys in place. For a teenager or older children, you can ask them to help you in simple household chores like setting the dinner table, washing their own plate, etc. Do remember to praise your child when trying to make an independent decision.
Eat Together
One of the best ways to bond and communicate with your children is by eating together. Regardless of whether you’re a working parent or not, it can happen that you get carried away with your work or chores and neglect the importance of family meals. Let’s not forget the fact that when your entire family sits together and eats, you’re away from other distractions like work and mobile phones.
Family meals are a great way to have fun and meaningful conversations with your children. You can ask your children to help you with small kitchen chores like helping you wash the vegetables for cooking. The more you involve your children, the more they would want to sit together as a family. Eating together as a family will help you inculcate healthy eating habits in your children at an early age. You can encourage them to have more fruits and vegetables and stop eating when they are full. That will keep them from overeating and they learn to live a healthy lifestyle.
Be A Good Role Model
If you’ve had a bad day at work or have other problems, it’s a human tendency to take out the frustration on other things. The worst thing you can do is lash out all of your anger on your children. At such times, you need to remember that everything you do is watched by your children. You wouldn’t want them to pick up such behavior right? And if you have younger children, it’s natural for them to imitate your behavior.
As a parent, you need to practice what you preach. Your children won’t follow discipline and show kindness if you don’t exhibit these behaviors. Make sure that you treat your children the way you want them to treat you. One of the most important qualities 21st century parents need to have is patience. Only by being a good role model can you help inculcate different values in your children like respect, honesty, kindness, etc. Don’t forget to take care of yourself as parenting can sometimes get overwhelming. There are several apps for parents that’ll help you on your journey as a parent.
21st century parenting involves communicating and connecting with your child on all levels.
Conclusion
If you follow our above tips on 21st century parenting, you can surely raise happy and healthy children. Being a parent is not that easy. After all, you’ll have to deal with so many things altogether. Right from sleepless nights, temper tantrums to managing different routines, there are so many things you need to take care of. One of those many important things is keeping a track of your child’s vaccination and immunization. Use our ImmunifyMe app to keep digitized vaccination records and get timely reminders for your child’s immunization.
FAQs On 21st Century Parenting
How Parenting Has Changed In The 21st Century?
In this 21st century, parents have been able to manage taking care of their children along with their work. However, this fast-paced lifestyle of the 21st century has made both parents and children rely a lot on technology like smartphones and laptops. Many parents find it difficult to make time for their children.
How Do You Parent A Child In The 21st Century?
Parenting comes with its own challenges and it’s different for every family. Here are some tips on 21st century parenting:
- Find time for your kids
- Get creative with parenting
- Acknowledge your child’s accomplishments
- Help your child become independent
- Eat together
- Be a good role model
What Are Some Parenting Challenges In The 21st Century?
One of the biggest parenting challenges in the 21st century is parents not being able to make time for their children. Other than that, dealing with children’s temper problems, affording good education, failing to limit the usage of social media and technology are some other challenges that 21st century parents deal with.
Why Does Parenting Matter in The 21st Century?
Parenting in the 21st century is important from a lot of aspects. It sows the seeds of autonomy, independence, values, and problem-solving skills in children. If parents are able to communicate with their children from an early age and inculcate good values in them, their children are more likely to have good self-esteem and emotional resilience.
