When you have listening children, they are also cooperating and responsible which are important habits parents must help them master for the future. Parenting children in ways that can help them listen and understand teaches them habits they will exhibit for a lifetime.
Positive parenting without bargaining, yelling, or intimidation will help fathers develop nurturing communication with their children which in turn will help them listen more. The tips below will help.
Be a great teacher. A great teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart. Fathers must be honest about their roles as parents by being the most important teacher their children will ever have.
Accepting that your children will make mistakes rather than expecting them to be perfect is half the battle in embracing your honorary role as teacher of the year. Learning to tolerate imperfection does not mean sacrificing values; it only means applying a bit of patience and understanding. Compassionate parenting builds and maintains healthy parent-child bonds.
Successful parenting requires you establish clear consequences. Consistency with consequences is a way for parents to allow kids to practice the desired behaviour. If they don’t get it right the first time, try again. Consequences need to fit the offense, so while sitting down to create the house rules it is helpful to get together with your spouse to agreed on consequences to be meted out when the rule is broken.
Teaching children is much easier done when parents reduce criticism and judgment while getting them to meet expectations. It is very difficult to manage our frustrations while parenting, especially if it a behaviour that has to be revisited over and over again. However, keep it cool under pressure and expressing a sense of acceptance for your child even though they keep getting it wrong.
Once a consequence is given for the negative behaviour, drop it and move on pleasantly with life. Continued expression of parental anger causes lingering feelings of guilt in children that go beyond just the rule that was broken. It begins to feel like a personal attack.
It is not every parenting moment that is meant to be a teachable moment. Children must be receptive and ready to hear what you are trying to teach them. When tempers are high, children are unable to tolerate the boundary being set. Therefore, it is very effective to wait until your child is receptive before punishing them. That is a great way to get them to listen.
In order to roll with this changing world, parents need to be flexible and love their children unconditionally. Children who feel loved develop a sense of self worth that gives them courage and stability. You can show love through kind words, unsolicited hugs, curiosity in their interests, non-judgement, communication and firm boundaries.