I see a lot of information on social media now about building solid foundations and taking baby steps to get to where you need to be. I see those posts because some very wise and wonderful people talked about them at a recent conference I went to. Emazon Stand Your Ground was an amazing experience for me. Even the conference was about building on the information presented at the session previously until we had the whole picture.
And you may wonder why I raise this when I write about children and self care and child protection. The truth is raising children is about providing them with a strong and stable foundation to move forward. Sometimes they need assistance to build a bridge over bullying and it cant be done all in one day, it takes time. Sometimes they need assistance to recover from trauma or grief and loss, this too takes time. It is done in stages, baby steps if you will building a strong foundation and moving forward.
No child of mine will go out into life without a solid foundation.
A solid foundation for a child comes with self acceptance, self-esteem, self-love, a bit of confidence, emotional literacy. This doesn’t come with fear, name calling, rejection, no trust, seeing things that are too difficult to process like domestic violence, being humiliated, being scapegoated. Oh dear this list goes on, I work in child protection, is seriously is a huge list.
I am not about to leave you with no clues then on how to build a solid foundation but if you read my past blog posts on social skills for handling conflict, stopping the weekend mayhem, tolerance and children making choices then you will start to get an idea of where we are headed as the blog continues.
I want us to send out our children with solid foundations, lights to show them the way, and a beautiful future ahead of them.
Tomorrow’s blog post will be more on conflict with teenagers and setting some boundaries for them. But for today lets recap so far with 1. be a good role model, 2. stay calm, 3. look after yourself first, 4. never get drawn into the fight, 5. keep kids busy when you can, 6. create routines for mornings, afternoons and evenings, 7. allow children to grow by letting them make choices, 8. time with children is more important than spending money on them, 9. manage your own anxiety or worries before trying to handle someone elses and 10. make sure you praise your child 80% of the time and chastise them only 20% of the time.
If you have more thoughts or ideas about what you would like to see on this blog let me know. In the meantime we are setting up a parent group to discuss these issues and more. The group is free of charge and open to parents who can travel to the north of Brisbane. Whether you are a stay at home parent, a working parent, a parent not getting enough sleep because of your baby to a parenting not getting enough sleep because your teenager is out again then please consider joining us. More information will be posted on our facebook page however feel free to contact me via email pineconnections@bigpond.com if you would like more information.
Pine Connections 