If you conducted a survey asking people what are the criteria that makes for a wise and successful parent, you would probably get a varied answer. It is understandable as even child experts have different views in this matter. Hence, you will find in this article all the necessary requisites to make a wise and successful parent.
Read through the list and see whether you meet all the criteria. Don’t worry if you don’t as this gives you the opportunity to improve on your parenting skills.
The wise, good, successful and superb parent fulfills the following criteria:
• Able to provide a nurturing and happy environment for your children to grow (a stable home).
It is a fact that children from a stable home will grow up to be productive and conscientious adults.
• Able to provide the necessities in life (material needs), i.e. food, shelter and clothing.
A certain comfortable level of needs must be met to ensure proper growth and development.
• Able to provide advice, emotional support, guidance and unconditional love among other things.
Children with all their emotional needs being met are conditioned to become better adults. Children who grew up in a loving environment becomes a loving person.
• Able to provide safety, structure and protection.
During the growing-up years, children need to feel protected, safe and secure. They need to feel some solid family structure in their lives that they can depend on as they go through childhood anxieties.
• Able to provide proper rules to introduce discipline and responsibility.
Children need to learn abut rules, about limitations and what is right or wrong. These valuable experiences will teach them to be a discipline and responsible adult. Rules are made to curb them from doing bad things and at the same time, they learn about taking responsibility for their actions.
• Able to provide unlimited opportunities for their children to learn and make mistakes and learn back from those mistakes.
Opportunities should be given or created to improve their social skills, leadership skills, discipline and self-control. Children learn things from the home, the school, their environment and most importantly from their own unique life experiences. The more situation or opportunities they encounter, the more valuable experiences they will gather. It can be good or bad experience. They learn what life is all about and this builds up their character.
• Able to provide opportunities for their children to be who they are and does not force their own expectations on them.
Children need to be allowed to be who they are and feel loved for it. They should not feel pressured to conform to their parent’s expectations.
• Able to provide quality time to be spent with the children, talking and listening and doing things together.
Parents must get close to their children by spending time and doing things together. Parents who spent quality time with their children will form stronger bonds compared to those who don’t.
• Able to provide spiritual and moral guidance.
Children who were brought up with a strong spiritual background and good moral guidance are more likely to grow to be a virtuous person.
• Able to provide encouragement and give praise when necessary.
Your children will face a lot of challenges and disappointments while growing up. As a parent, you can give your support, encouragement and praise at appropriate times. Your children will learn to pick themselves up and move on in adverse situations.
Be a good role model
The above criteria are all essential. However, most importantly do not forget to provide a good example or role model to your children. Research has shown that parents who are responsible and hardworking tend to have children who are responsible and hardworking. Parents who are happy and easy-going tend to have children who are happy and easy-going.
On the flip side, parents who are short-tempered creates an unstable atmosphere at home which rubs off on their children. Parents who lack social skills will not be able to show and teach their children how to interact and relate with other people. Therefore, always keep in mind the influence you have on your children.
The parent’s reward
What is the end result of being a wise, good, successful and superb parent? The parent’s reward is in having children who are responsible, honest, mature, intelligent and dependable and having good emotional (high self-esteem) and social skills development. How many parents long for their children to have all these good qualities? I believe all parents want their children to possess all these good and excellent qualities.
Parents who have worked on their parenting skills and fulfill most of the criteria above shall no doubt have more confidence in their children. As parents, we never went to a parenting school and what we learn is mostly from the school of ‘hard-knocks’, learning from mistakes and experience. In addition, we also pick up things through observation and from our own childhood experience. You should realize that parenting is not an exact science and there is no a one-size-fits all formula for successful parenting.
In summary, my goal as a parent is the same as your goal and that is to provide a conducive growing up environment that enables the child to learn, make mistakes and make the most of herself. From the whole process, I hope that my child grows up to become a responsible mature adult.
Please share your ideas of what makes for a wise, good and successful parent. Your views and comments are most welcome.
photo credit: freeparking
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Hello my name is Karla P and read your article and I agree with you, cause Im a single mother with a 16 yr girl her morals are good good grades and she goes to church every sat she is a good girl and I thank God for it being a single mom is hard but I have a good job and my freinds talk to her all the time God Bless all the single parents.