Practice Conscious Parenting
What do we do so our children understand the importance of a healthy body, learn to manage their emotions, and nurture love for their friends and family? What do we do to help them grow into inspired adults that will make a positive impact on our society, love our mother Earth, and discover the purpose of life and ways to be happy?
Contents
Steps
- Teach you child communication skills. Babies listen to sounds before birth. Research has shown that babies can recognize words they heard in the womb, and that they remember voices. The most important idea here is to listen to children regardless of their age. If there is noise, tell your baby where it comes from; show and try new food together; draw and craft, dance and walk.
- During communication, the tone and attitude should not sound distant, sarcastic, degrading or impatient. Be confident, calm and loving. This is your first opportunity to teach your baby how to respond to the world. In listening to you, s/he absorbs essential emotional memories s/he will use to react to life in the future. Instill values. Show that kindness, honesty, courage, respect, confidence and patience can help in any situation.
- Create a peaceful and encouraging environment. Practice Mindfulness Exercise Mindfulness to Be Happier Since your baby absorbs all information and words the way a sponge takes water, you have to create a safe and peaceful environment. This gives the child the opportunity to learn and explore the world freely and fearlessly. If one of the parents is stressed out, the child will reflect this energy.
- To develop a child who will build peace and respect in his house later, there should be peace and respect in the house now. Moreover, the environment should encourage your baby to learn and explore. It is better if a child listens to different styles of music, hears other languages, sees various types of painting, has pens and colors to draw, books to see, and tools to craft as early as possible. Working with hands is a must.
- Be your child's role model. If you do not prove or behave according to your words, nobody will take you seriously. That is especially the case with children. They often say, “But you do not do this, so why should I?” Parents as the first role models have to stay honest, truthful, respectful, staying behind own words and being consistent. If they contradict themselves, their efforts will never work, but instead will annoy and confuse. You might think that your baby is too small to understand this, but that is not so. Your child will copy you. First s/he will repeat your behavior, then your words.
- Practice routine. We all need routine in our food consumption, in our sleep patterns, in our cleanliness and our exercise regime. This routine does not come naturally and it is learned and exercised from very young age. Not only will it help you to manage the household, but kids also grow up happier without the stress of unpredictability. Moreover, your routine can be planned to give you the opportunity to have a “free time,” so to speak. It is a carefully structured activity and should be rigorously followed. The routine includes:
- Regular bedtime, regular mealtime, regular washing time, a set time for silence, a set time for creativity, a set time for play.
- The routine around food – at a set time, and place. Make sure that the food is healthy, home-made, vegetarian... Prepare a Healthy Vegetarian Meal
- The routine around ‘spaces’ – dining at the dining table, playing in the playing room, doing the home-work after school, etc. With the set routine, your children will feel safe and 'at home' within their lives.
- Establish daily routine. Establishing a daily routine will save you from the mayhem you plunge into when you have a baby. As soon as you know the physiological and emotional habits of your child, you can set up a daily schedule, i.e., within the first 6 weeks.
- Practice freedom. Exploring, experiencing and imitating the world of grown-us through free play, children are given a chance to subconsciously learn and emotionally mature through their own games. Too much of today’s learning is structured; children are ‘directed’, ‘instructed’ and carefully ‘followed’ at all times, so they do not have a chance to experience learning through unobstructed observation.
- Practice love. Children need to feel love at all times: love gives them confidence that they are heard, that they are present, and that they matter. A warm, loving and gentle environment gives children a wonderful start to life. Children perceive their parents' emotions and map them, so if the parent is angry, they will be frightened or chaotic.
- Follow creative life flow. Help Children Learn Objects of play should be as simple as possible, to allow the power of imagination to flourish. Buying ‘perfect’, expensive toys robs the children of an ability to see beauty in a stone or a shell. Freedom should be an integral ingredient of your child’s growth.
- Go to a park or a beach and do not hurry, let your child play, be, experiment. Try not to interfere, let them be children, let them discover, explore, and invent their objects of play.
- Allow your child to cook, wash dishes, take care of plants, and take care of animals: these activities are extremely interesting for a child because they can act as grown-ups.
- Let your children play with others. Children also learn beautifully when with other children, they learn not to scream, shout or hit, because other children at all times challenge their emotional make-up.
- Cultivate relationships. Cultivate loving relationships within your family, with your neighbors, friends, with the Earth and its inhabitants. Have in mind that you are not alone, that you are a part of a bigger 'picture' that will become your children's future. The development of thoughts should go hand in hand with the development of feelings and heart. Children have a beautiful capacity for feelings that will later in life give them a rich soul experiences.
- Respect Mother Earth. Plant trees, have animals, and have constant contact with nature. Spend time in nature regularly. Show your child where their food comes from. Plant your-own strawberry fields, grow plants from seeds. Observe nature and its beauty. Allow child to interact with nature freely, to climb a tree or plant a tree. Minimize waste and reduce the use of chemicals in your home.
- Do not waste too much of yours and your child's time in watching TV, Internet, playing computer games, using mobiles, etc. Keep Kids Busy with No TV There is so much to explore and learn from nature, art, music and other people.
Tips
- Be careful not to stress your little ones with too many structured activities. They also need some 'time out', free space to contemplate, observe, learn through stillness.
- Let your children explore and be on their-own, let them play without 'ready-made' toys. Life is a wonder full of mystery. Learning from flowers, stones, and other people, is wonderful, stimulates creativity and teaches your little ones how to never get bored.
- Children love learning through rhymes, they love poetry, painting, story-telling, cooking, knitting, and their thinking capability beautifully develops supported by music, arts, and sports.
- Love is the most important ingredient for conscious parents. Practice love! Hug your kids constantly!
- No matter how much you give to a child, you will hear the repeated sentence ‘I want more.' If you are not careful with your response, you might experience problems later on.
- Learn to encourage healthy competition. Working together is inspiring. Compete against yourself, not against others.
- Know what to do if your child misbehaves. If baby misbehaves – distract him, wash his face or give a pacifier. The rule of thumb is that if your baby starts crying, asking for something that he should not get, or just misbehaving – distract him. Try taking baby to the window to show them what's going on outside, and it may calm you child down and make them forgets their concerns. The other tricks can be used include washing baby's face. Somehow that helps, and, of course, a pacifier is the number-one calming device.
Related Articles
- Help Children Learn
- Be a Good Parent
- Practice Divergent Thinking
- Keep Kids Busy with No TV
- Develop Both Hemispheres of the Brain
- Exercise Mindfulness to Be Happier
- Free Your Mind and Think
References
- Pantović Nataša, 2016, “Conscious Parenting Course”. Kids and Technology (1). [Artof4elements Press, AoL Mindfulness Series Book #5]: pg205. ISBN-10: 9789995754044
- https://www.artof4elements.com/entry/138/practice-conscious-parenting
