Parents & Parenting

Parenting is an adventure. It can end up being a wonderful, crazy, terrible, or exciting experience. As most things, it is what you make of it. Very few people boast about how easy parenting was or is for them.

In most cases, parents usually warn parents-to-be of the changes to come. New parents hear everything from the cute stories of a friend's child saying "Mommy" for the first time, to the horror stories of a cousin's two-year-old's outburst and tantrum during a communion service. The point is that each parent chooses which aspect of parenting he or she focuses on. If you go into it with a positive attitude, the results will, more likely than not, be positive.

Parenting has a lot to do with the type of children one raises. The types of principles parents instill in their children play a key role in the kind of people their children end up as adults. Children whose parents fail to teach them morals end up picking up all sorts of habits, addictions, and ideas from their peers, television, music, etc. These children often grow up miserable, having never been raised with any boundaries or restrictions. Parents who raise their children this way do their children no favors, only a great injustice.

When a person chooses to parent, the best should be in mind for the child. Parenting should never be considered a burden. If the joy of parenting ever diminishes to the point that it almost seems quenched, something is wrong. Children are dependent on their parents, and if the parents they look up to wish they did not exist, nothing good can come from the relationship except hatred, bitterness, and depression.

To be the best parent you want to be, you must be willing to work hard. Good children are not necessarily "born that way." Somebody took the time to coach, encourage, and love those children. Your children can only get from you what you pour into them. If you neglect them, put them down, or scarcely tell them how much you love them, they will come to resent you.

Children who only hear their parents bad-mouth them to other adults are not encouraged to improve or obey their parents. To these children, no matter what good they do, their parents are not going to be impressed; rather, they will nit-pick at the minor details that ordinarily would not matter. These children are the type that withdraw themselves from their parents. They consider it pointless to have a relationship with their parents, because they deem their existence as a hindrance to their parents. Children like these often label themselves "accidents," as they rationalize that their parents would have been better off without them.

Parenting can and is wonderful. There are several books that help the exhausted, energy-depleted, or overwhelmed parent.

For more information on parenting, visit

http://www.positiveparenting.com/

http://www.parenthood.com/links.html

http://www.parenting.org/