Become a Student of Your Own Behavior

Parenting is one of the most important responsibilities any of us will have in a lifetime.

Parenting is also one of the most difficult, stressful, anxiety-provoking and complex responsibility anyone can have. 

In order to be successful at parenting we need to be a conscious, thoughtful parent and not leave parenting to chance, invest time 'up front'.
We need to approach parenting from a systematic point of view rather than relying on a 'hit and miss' approach. We need to be proactive rather than reactive.



In order to be a 'professional' parent we need to incorporate the following elements into our lives.

1. Make conscious decisions.
2. Have a game plan.
3. Become a student of one's own behavior
4. Have an experimental attitude.

Make a conscious decision to invest in parenting by adopting the five critical needs.

You will need to create a game plan of where you want to be as a parent and how to get there. Success does not often come without planning. Here are some ideas you may choose to include in your game plan:

• Set aside time to read about the five critical needs and time to reflect on how you are currently parenting.
• Schedule family meetings for to gather feedback on how things are working and how thing can improve.
• Make a committment to provide your children positive feedback.
• Plan family activities.
• Establish family rules. Children feel more secure when they know what is expected of them.
• Create family traditions that happen on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly).
• Read or tell stories to your children daily.
• Create a team approach to cooking and kitchen work.
• Set time aside for your own self-care (you can't effectively help others when you've been running on empty)
• Participate in a parent support group.

Become a student of one's own behavior. Keep a journal as often as you are able using this form.

With an experimental attitude, there is no such thing as failure. "If you don't make mistakes, you don't make anything". Make something!