Parenting is a rollercoaster ride. Being parents is a great feeling. But, with that maintaining parenting responsibility is also difficult. A healthy relationship with your child is the foundation for their stable emotional development.
A strong parent-child relationship requires lots of effort, patience and understanding. Positive relationships with parents can help children learn about the world from different angles. Children grow and learn best when they have strong, loving, positive relationships with their parents.
You need to develop strong relationships with your children right from their infancy to form the basis of their social and emotional development. However, it is not easy because of children’s growing age, swinging mood, and different challenges can make it difficult to bond with them.
You can build a positive relationship with your child by being with them, spending quality time together, and creating a caring environment of trust and respect. Remember, there is no perfect definition for what is a good parent-child relationship? But if your relationship with your child is built on warm, caring, loving and responsive interactions most of the time, your child will feel loved and secure.
Building a relationship with a child takes time and effort. 5 qualities are significant to build a healthy and strong parent-child relationship.
- Safety
- Unconditional love
- Mutual respect
- Acceptance
- Flexibility
We are providing some positive-parenting techniques to help you strengthen relationship between you and your child:
1 Show your love
It is significant that you show your love to your child by gentle, loving touch like a hug from you several times throughout the day because that helps your child in healthy emotional and neurobiological development. Every parent loves their children, but be sure to tell them every day. A simple “I love you” can have a major impact on your long-term relationship with your child.
2 Set boundaries, rules, and consequences
Your children need proper guidance as they grow and learn about the world around them. Talk to your child about what you expect from them and make sure they understand. Make sure age appropriate consequences, when your child breaks the rules and be consistent with them.
3 Listen and empathize
Good listening is the most important communication skill for developing your healthy relationship with your child. You can see things from your child’s perspective when you listen to them. By listening and empathizing with your child, you will begin to foster mutual respect.
4 Play together
Playing is the tool through which children develop language skills, express emotions, foster creativity, and learn about social skills. Apart from this, it will help you to strengthen your relationship with your child. It does not matter what you play. The key is to just enjoy each other and commit to giving your child your undivided attention.
5 Be available and distraction-free
Setting sometime of your day to talk to your child without distractions can make a big difference in establishing good communication habits. Turn off your TV or other devices and spend some quality time together. It can help your child to believe that they are priorities in your life despite the many distractions and stressors that come your way.
6 Eat meals together
There is an old proverb that a family eats together, stays together. When you have family meal time, it may offer a key to happiness, fulfillment and a full belly. Eating together as a family can often lead to great conversation and bonding time with your child. Keep away your phones and other devices from meal time, simply enjoy each other’s company. You can make meal time as a learning time for your child about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet, which also affects their overall mental health.
7 Create parent-child rituals
It is good to set some parent-child rituals to strengthen your relationship with your child. If you have more than one child, you should make a point to spend quality time with each individual child. So, they can know that they are special and valued. It is a good idea to create special date nights with your children to create that one-on-one opportunity.
8 Avoid negative parenting
When you want to have a strong bond with your child, do not indulge in negative parenting. Do not react in a negative way as this can only harm your child. They do not feel loved but feel criticized. Do not compare your child with another child because every child is different.
Some of benefits of positives parent-child relationship are:
- Young children who grow with a secure and healthy attachment to their parents stand a better chance of developing happy and content relationships with others in their life.
- Promotes the child’s mental, linguistic and emotional development.
- Helps the child exhibit optimistic and confident social behaviors.
- Healthy parent involvement and intervention in the child’s day-to-day life lay the foundation for better social and academic skills.
- A child who has a secure relationship with a parent learns to regulate emotions under stress and in difficult situations.
The bottom line is to create a safe, secure, loving and caring environment for your child to create a healthy and strong relationship with you. Be available when your child needs support, care or help, so that they know you love them and they are special to you. Every child is unique and different, so do not follow what other parents do but develop your own way to create a healthy relationship with your child.
