The day my middle child was born was one of the most amazing days in my life. We were thrilled to give our only son who spent almost 8 years as an only child a baby brother and our family was complete. My new little bundle loved his mommy and spent hours on end in my arms. As he got older we started to notice his favoritism towards me. He practically refused to let anyone besides his dad, brother and especially me hold him. We struggled through his first two years to get him to be social with anyone other than us. He would hit, scream, and have melt downs at the idea of interacting with others. I blamed this all on being home with him all day and my soft parenting was more than just nurturing him it was hurting our entire dynamics. My sweet little boy was not all that sweet.
The actions we make as a parent to our children is one of the most defining parts to helping them grow and learn. Balancing the act of strong and soft parenting is a huge task that I struggle with everyday. So how do you parent a child that has spent two of the most important years of their life being exposed to soft parenting? And how do you strong parent when your normal reaction is to be less abrasive?
Balance Strong and Soft Parenting
Leading by example is the golden rule to instilling important values and stomping out bad behavior. Our children are the first to pick up on our behaviors. If you don’t want them complaining, yelling or demanding make sure you are not possessing those behaviors.
Setting boundaries and sticking to them. If you have rules don’t sway from them and have repercussions ahead of time.
Disciplining your child is a part of parenting that you should embrace. As hard as it is to put your child in time out or take away a favorite toy, it’s a learning experience that should not be broken.
Lose the guilt of strong parenting and embrace the values you are instilling.
Encourage and reward good behavior at home and in public. Now I’m not telling you to spoil your child when they make a good choice. Praising your child for a job well done and thanking them for the good behavior is all it takes to lead by example and promote good behavior.
The key to the strong and soft parenting battle is to do what feels comfortable to you and your family. Don’t overwhelm yourself or your child, but stick to your goals of parenting. There are times to soft parent and there are time when strong parenting needs to be implemented. Charmin also understands that Soft and Strong are two different battles. Do you prefer Ultra Soft Charmin or Ultra Strong Charmin? Or is there a time when either are more appropriate? Charmin wants you to cast your Vote in the Charmin 2012 Election the great TP debate. Like Charmin on facebook and cast your vote.
“I was compensated for this blog post as part of the SocialMoms and Charmin blogging program. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. For more blog posts on this topic, click here.”
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