Every parent, at some point in time, asks himself, “am I doing this right?”
After all, parenting is scary. Taking care of someone else (or several someones) is a lot of responsibility. You worry you’ll screw them up for life or they won’t have fond memories of their childhood. You worry they’ll get sick or will be kidnapped. You worry about them fitting in at school, or what their test scores indicate about their futures.
All of these fears are legitimate, and are the exact reason you are a great parent! Worrying about your child’s well-being is exactly what you should be doing.
But, if in doing so, you ever start to feel run-down or like someone better than you should be taking a whack at this whole ordeal, Meghan Leahy with the Washington Post provided the following advice (plus a few more tips you can see on the On Parenting blog) about building a better relationship with your kids:
1. Cultivate a family value system
2. Create strong but kind boundaries and routines
3. Take time to connect, and know how to laugh, play and not take yourself (or your children) too seriously
Most importantly, remember you are not alone. Literally billions of people have done this before you and billions more will do it after you. There is no right or wrong way to parent – just different ways to love and teach your children. The best you can do is your best.
