It got me thinking of things I do that make sense for me. I thought I would share them and see, just maybe they might help you out as well. They are my rules for parenting.
1. I include God in my parenting. For me I find I want HIS strength. I need to be in scripture every day. I need to pray. For me this allows me to connect, and recharge.So no matter your faith if you include your faith in your daily life I find the job simply easier to do.
2. Parenting is priority. It comes over work, over writing, over everything else. I decided long ago parenting would always be my most important job. For me this means I had to find work that allowed me time with my daughter.
3. We have a weekly family meeting. We talk about plans, what we want to do, and the budget. My tween gets to learn how things all come together and we can discuss and plan anything that needs to be done.
4. We have a biweekly family fun night. We choose one night and do something FUN together. I find this h as been great for bonding.
5. Show them respect and value and they will return the favor. I try to show my tween respect and take a genuine interest in her opinions even when I dont agree. I do want to know how she got to her thinking and yes we have had some very interesting conversations.
6.We have TV/Computer free time…sometimes it is good to become the unplugged parent.
7. Be quick to apologize when wrong. Show them how to correct mistakes because we will all make them.
For me if I do these simple common sense things parenting my tween is easy and we have lots of fun on the path that is life. What about you and your family do you have certain rules?
