Everybody wants to think that their children will grow up well-adjusted. All parents make mistakes, no matter how hard you might try not to, but that doesn’t have to prevent you from raising generally well-adjusted kids. The world is difficult to face, but you can give your children the tools and the outlook to help them navigate it all. You can’t protect them from everything, but you can make it easier for them to deal with anything that might come their way. As kind, loving parents who are fair and consistent, you can raise your children to be happy, healthy adults. Of course, the theory is a lot easier than putting it into practice. So how do you raise a well-adjusted child?
Teach Confidence and Autonomy
Children need to be able to make decisions for themselves. Of course, there’s some amount of rule-following that needs to be in place before they’re adults. But making all decisions for your child or putting a “my house, my rules” philosophy in place is probably not going to help your child to develop the kind of independence that you probably want to encourage. Your child needs to make mistakes and to learn from them. This will help them to gain confidence and to think for themself. You can start by letting your child choose their clothes or whether they want to hug people. Autonomy of both body and mind is important to teach to your child, even though they also need to learn that sometimes it’s important to do certain things.
Help Your Child Be Emotionally Healthy
Teaching your child to be emotionally healthy is a big part of helping them grow up. All children have to learn how to deal with their emotions and how to react to them. You can start with helping your child understand feelings so that they can recognize and identify different feelings. This is important not just for their own emotional and mental health, but also so that they can learn empathy and compassion for others. Children can deal with a lot of big emotions, especially at times when they have surges of hormones, but helping them to manage them in a healthy way can help them grow up well-adjusted.
Provide Consistency and Routine
Consistency is essential in parenting. If you’re not consistent, it’s going to be confusing and upsetting for your child. If they don’t know what to expect from you, how can they know how to behave or how you will react to anything that they do? Following through on the things that you say is an important part of this, whether it means a punishment or a reward. Creating a consistent routine helps you to raise healthy children too. In fact, routines are also good for adults, so the whole family can benefit from having a good routine.
Encourage Your Child to Try
No child is good at everything. Some may be more academically gifted or good at certain school subjects, while others might be sporty, artistic, or outgoing. Whatever your child is good at, it’s important to reward effort and encourage your child to try. Teach your child that they can’t always achieve perfection and that you don’t expect it from them, but it’s still important to try your best.
Help with Building Strong Relationships
People need people. Although some people might be more social than others, it’s pretty hard to get through this world without being able to associate with other people. From acquaintances and colleagues to friends and family, we need to know how to form relationships with people. Encourage your child to make friends and get to know people their own age, however old they are. Some children can be shy or feel less confident, but encouraging them to make friends will benefit them. Strong relationships outside of the family can be important.
Know When to Get Help
Sometimes it’s necessary for parents to get outside help. No one is automatically a parenting expert and, even if you do know your stuff, you can’t know everything about people. Your child might benefit from other interventions or support, such as seeing a therapist or going to activities outside your home where they enjoy the support of their peers. It’s important to pay attention to how your child is feeling and their development so that you can spot any potential issues.
Raising well-adjusted children takes work. The most important thing to remember is to treat your child as their own person, with their own needs.
