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Positive Parenting
October 22, 2008 |
The stresses of raising children can make many parents
feel like they’re on the edge of breaking down. Jessica Carr teaches a parenting
class. “I’ve seen some parents come in pretty frustrated and near tears sometimes.”
But Jessica is part of a program that’s helping parents learn how prevent those
tears and better cope with everyday situations.
“We make decisions a million times
a day and it’s about making these decisions for ourselves and our children that
are positive and they are not punitive in a way that’s going to demean the child
and demean ourselves.” Many frustrated parents revert to yelling or spanking their
children when they misbehave. But at the end of the day some parents regret resorting
to that kind of negative punishment. “We’re talking about things that you go to
bed feeling guilty about, yelling, downgrading-the things we feel will get responses
from our kids quickly but really end up doing damage long term. “
Jessica adds that in moments of anger and frustration parents should try their best
to promote positive behavior rather than provide a negative example for their children.
“It’s really about day to day things that you can do with your kids, using choices
and consequences, finding ways to give them positive power so they don’t act out
in things like tantrums and negative power struggles.”
If you want to learn more about positive parenting you can log onto
www.leememorial.org and click on the child advocacy program. Research
shows healthy and unhealthy interactions between parents and children are normal
but building positive interactions can reduce the risk of family violence. |
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