Tricks to be a Better Parent for Your Baby – One of the biggest challenges of being a mom is finding time for everything. Often, to take care of our family, home, and work, we forget to take care of ourselves. Today I would like to share with you some ideas that you can implement in your daily routine to be more productive and thus have extra time to create memorable moments with your children.
Finding a balance between our lives as a mom, family, work, friends, home, etc., is not easy. We are often even totally unbalanced and give more priority to one area of our life than to others. Certainly, that is what happened to us before taking a different course in our professional career. Today I want to share 5 tricks to be a better parent for your baby with you.
1. Get up Before Everyone Else.
Yes, yes, I know. Raising children has us exhausted, and how could I ask you to get up even earlier. But give me the benefit of the doubt. This has made a masterful difference in my life. Getting up a little earlier allows me to give myself a little time. To be able to do a little exercise, take a quiet shower, get ready without anyone asking me for attention. A moment just for me, and the truth is that this helped me start the day with more energy since I have more to give to my children by taking care of myself.
Now I get up an hour before the others, but I started little by little. First minutes before, and so on. When I started to see its impact on my mood, it motivated me to increase my time in the morning.
2. Identify Your Most Important Tasks.
Moms always think that we are superwomen, and when we realize that we cannot do everything, we become unmotivated and want to throw in the towel. But the truth is that hardly anyone can do everything in one day. Identify the three most essential things on your to-do list, create a schedule for yourself, and make sure you complete everything you have planned. When you’re done, you can begin identifying which tasks would take priority next. This way, when night comes, you will feel proud of having completed the most important thing.
3. Like with Your Studies, Don’t Be Rigid
Wanting your children always to be the best, have the best grades, know how to play instruments, and do a thousand sports is also quite stressful. If your child is superior at math but not so good at English, you have to make him understand that it is possible that he will get a 10 in one activity but a 5 or 6 in the other.
How to choose books for young children
Young children want to feel included and competent. So choose books that they can follow the Reading, especially those containing repeating text to fill in words. To keep your toddler’s interest, choose books with little text on each page and books on topics you know your child will be interested in.
For younger children (12-24 months), choose sturdy cardboard books with pictures (especially photos) of children doing what they usually do every day. Books about bedtime, bath time, or mealtime are an excellent choice, as are books about saying hello or goodbye. Keep fidgety hands busy with foldout pages and textures your child can feel.
Toddlers 24-36 months are beginning to turn paper pages, so it’s a good time to move beyond board books. They are also beginning to understand the mechanics of Reading and like books that are repetitive and easy to memorize so that they can “read.” Many websites are accessible on the internet where you can find the best book for your children, as seen on coolthingschicago.com.
At this point, you will begin to discover your child’s interests. Whether it’s trains, trucks, or teddy bears, find books about these things that interest you. Children this age also like books regarding children, families, and animals.
Young children love looking at handmade books, scrapbooks, or pictures of people they know (try to include simple captions). Poetry and songbooks are also good options for this age group. You may find that reading time will become singing time.
To encourage the interest of your children in Reading, avoid these mistakes
- Don’t force him to read. You have to get the child to read on his own. This can only be achieved if you associate reading with a good time. Read because you like it.
- Never punish him by sending him to the room to read. The child will associate reading with something negative.
- Don’t insist that he read the stories he doesn’t like. Don’t even demand that she finish a book that she left halfway because it bored her.
- Avoid lecturing him on the importance of Reading. A child does not care that Reading is the soul’s food, gymnastics of the spirit, the basis of training, or other topics like these.
4. Reduce the time you expend browsing the internet
Thanks to smartphones, it’s too easy to stay connected all day. Social networks and Whatsapp groups are stealing our lives. I must admit that I spent a lot of time surfing the net. But if we want to be more productive and meet our goal of completing our tasks so that we can enjoy more time with our children, we must make an effort only to see our phone at certain times of the day, and not throughout the day while we are trying to complete our tasks. I’m trying not to watch social media until the kids are in bed. That is my moment of Rest 15-20 min in which I rest, and I see what has been happening in the world, with friends, I respond to messages, etc. WhatsApp is still a work in progress for me,
5. Don’t be so rigid and strict
Being very strict in everything can lead to a lot of stress. It is good to establish routines and schedules, but you have to leave some room for error and play with it a bit so that schedules do not become something that binds you and overwhelms you if you cannot comply with them.
For example, it is fine to instill a very healthy diet in your children, but indulging yourself once in a while is okay. If you are strict about everything, you run the risk that they will be that way too.
Conclusion:
Evaluate which of these virtues are your strengths and reinforce those that are not so strong. The benefits will not only be for your children but you as well. Never forget that you are great, and your children are always proud to have a parent like you.