6 of the Best Parenting Tips You’ll Ever Hear

Most people won't tell you how easy they find parenting. It might have some easy moments, but overall, there's work involved. You brought this little person into the world, and you must legally watch out for them until they turn 18. Some parents feel like they need to watch over their kids for their entire adult lives.

You probably want to have a good parent-child relationship, from the time they're small to when they reach adulthood. When you reach older adulthood, you may have to move in with them if you want to avoid using a paid family caregiver or ending up in a nursing home.  

With that in mind, we've come up with a list featuring the best parenting tips we've ever heard. Follow this advice, and you should have a good relationship with your kids throughout your life.

Don't Use Corporal Punishment

Hitting kids doesn't work, period, full stop. If you need your kids to behave, you have to use other tactics besides striking them.

In the past, many parents hit their kids. The parents expected to do it sometimes if the kids misbehaved, and the kids expected it because society tolerated it. That's not the case in 2022, though. Hitting kids is child abuse, even if you don't leave a mark on them.

If a child misbehaves, taking away privileges is much more effective. You can take away video game, computer, phone, or TV privileges. You can make them sit in a corner and put them on time out. You can ground them so they can't see their friends.

You can tailor the punishment depending on what they did, but if you hit them, you've crossed a line and done something you can't take back. If you hit a child when they misbehave, they begin to resent you. The more you do it, the more likely you won't have a healthy relationship with them when they're adults.

Also, if another adult sees you hitting your child, they can report you to child welfare services. If that happens and child welfare services opens an investigation into your behavior, you can lose your child or children.

You need to have other weapons in your punishment arsenal besides hitting. Striking a child is never the answer, regardless of what they do.

Lead By Example

Kids are essentially sponges. They definitely soak up what they see and hear. That's why you need to monitor the music to which they listen and the TV shows they watch.

If you demonstrate behavior that you don't want to see from your kids, you'll know you're sending them the wrong message. For instance, think about kids you know who make fun of those different from them. Think about instances where you hear a child bullied another young person because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

Hatred and intolerance are behaviors people learn. If you demonstrate these intolerances yourself, you're teaching your kids that's the right way to behave.

If we ever want to really progress as a society, you need to stop behaving in prejudice-encouraging ways. If you see your kids imitating these behaviors, talk to them about why that's not acceptable. 

You can also reexamine your behaviors and curb them if they're unsavory or repellant. It's never too late to change your behavioral patterns, even if you've engaged in them for most of your life.

Start Reading to Them as Early as Possible

Reading encourages intellectual growth. You can start reading your children stories at a very young age. Even before they understand the language, they should hear you speak it around them.

Try being verbal with them as infants. Speak or sing to them. Once they become a bit older, start reading them the stories you enjoyed as a child. If you don't have any favorites from childhood, look for classic children's book lists online and get those books to read to your kids.

You might start with ones by Dr. Seuss. Then, move on to ones by Roald Dahl or Robert Louis Stevenson. You might read them books by Mark Twain, A.A. Milne, or J.R.R. Tolkien.  

Reading your kids the classics will capture their imaginations. Reading is much better for their intellectual development than having them sit in front of the TV or giving them your smartphone so they can amuse themselves with it.

You can do the characters in different voices. Your kids should start looking forward to your reading time with them. Even if you feel tired when you come home from work, try to set aside a little reading time. You and the kids will both have great memories from it when you get older.

Meet the People with Whom They Spend Time

Your children should have friends when they get older. Assuming they do, make sure that you meet them. You can invite your child's friends over to the house for a playdate. When you do, you can meet the parents as well.

See what impression you get from both the child and the parents. If you want your children to embody certain character traits, you should know they get a lot of those from the people around them. That can include teachers and anyone they emulate on TV or in movies, but their friends count for a lot too.

If you don't like their friends, talk to your kids about why you don't want them hanging out with them. Maybe you find that your kid's friends have ideas or engage in behaviors you don't want to see from your child.

Don't just ignore your child's friends. Spend a little time with them to make sure you agree with their beliefs and values.

You're Their Parent, Not Their Friend

You should also remember that you're the adult in the relationship. You can encourage friendly, loving interactions between yourself and your kids to foster trust and build some good memories. However, you're also not the person who should supply them with alcohol for underage drinking or do anything illegal or unethical with them.

You need to remember that you're the authority figure in the house. That sometimes means telling your kid they can't do something or get something they want.

Kids don't have the same world and life experiences that you do. They have not seen what you've seen or experienced what you've experienced. They have not made the mistakes you have and learned from them.

You need to exercise your authority sometimes and make decisions your child may not like. They might cry or throw a tantrum occasionally. They're self-centered, so they may even say hurtful things, especially as they reach that teenage age where they start to rebel.

That's normal, but you can't relent if you know you're right and they're wrong. Saying yes to everything your child does will spoil them. Sometimes, you have to play the traffic cop or the judge and lay down the law. Your kids might not like it, but they will likely respect you for it someday and understand why you acted that way when they develop some empathy.

Establish Open Communication Lines

Some parents feel like childhood is pretty easy. All a kid must do is go to school and try to get good grades. They have to stay out of trouble, but they don't experience the same pressures you do, having to work and put food on the table.

Childhood comes with plenty of pressure, though. As an adult, it's easy to forget that since childhood was years ago, and it's not always possible to remember what you thought and felt at that time.

Children feel peer pressure sometimes. They likely want to appear cool to their friends. That could mean trying drugs or experimenting with sex. It could mean vandalizing things or making fun of other kids to improve their social standing.

Try to make sure your kids understand they can talk to you about things if they feel uncomfortable or if someone tries to pressure them into behavior they don't like. You should speak to them about things like sex and drugs when you feel it's appropriate. Don't wait until it's too late and you have a pregnant daughter on your hands.

Don't assume a child won't do something foolish from time to time just because they get good grades and they seem intelligent. Remember that a child's brain keeps developing beyond their teenage years. They sometimes don't think about potential consequences before they act.

If your kid comes to you voluntarily and says they did something wrong or they thought about it, try not to blow up at them. Take a deep breath and remember you were a kid once too, and you probably felt the same pressures and had the same raging hormones.

At least your child felt comfortable enough with you to tell you what they did or considered doing. Take that into account before you hand out punishment or decide what to do next.