Despite how fulfilling it is, raising a toddler takes a lot of work and effort. There’s often a lot of stress involved. If you’re a first-time parent, then this could seem overwhelming. It doesn’t need to be, however.
There are multiple tips and tricks you can use to make it easier. While you’ll still need to put work into it, it’ll be more than worth the effort. You’ll make parenting look like a breeze by keeping each of these in mind.
Make Raising A Toddler Less Stressful: 7 Top Tips
1. Help Them Sound It Out
Your toddler is likely still learning how to read properly. That can be a difficult process; not only do they need to learn how to recognize specific letters and words, but also how to pronounce them. As effective as school is with this, you may want to help them.
There are more than a few ways you can do so, such as kids’ phonics. Taking such measures will help your child learn to read much faster and more effectively. If you’re worried about your child falling behind, this can be a recommended way of overcoming it.
It’s worth looking into which resources may help your toddler.
2. Catch Them Being Good
It’s not uncommon to catch your toddler doing something bad and punish them accordingly. When was the last time you caught them doing something good, however? Chances are they could do much more of this than you’re aware of; you simply mightn’t be paying enough attention.
By being on the lookout for positive behavior, such as cleaning up without being asked, you can praise them when they do so. Using this as positive reinforcement will ensure they behave in such ways again. In time, it’ll make sure you don’t need to keep asking them to do things you want them to do.
It’ll create positive life habits.
3. Boost Their Self-Esteem
Kids start developing their self-esteem much earlier than many people think. They get much of this from their parents, which is why you must go out of your way to boost their self-esteem whenever you can.
While you wouldn’t want to give them an over-inflated ego, you’ll want to make sure they have a healthy sense of self. Praising their achievements is a simple and effective way of doing this, regardless of how small they may seem.
You should also avoid making judgemental and negative remarks about their appearance or behavior. The more you criticize them, regardless of how minor away, can affect their self-esteem more than you’re aware.
Avoiding this will ensure they have a healthy sense of self as they get older.
4. Make Time For Them
How often do you have quality time with your toddler? That goes beyond making dinner for them and bringing them to and from activities. When was the last time you got together as a family and had some quality time? It may have been a while, especially considering how hectic your life may be.
Making time for them doesn’t need to be difficult. It could be as simple as getting up ten minutes earlier every morning to spend quality time having breakfast with them. It’s also worth scheduling time to engage in family activities and have fun together. It’ll help you bond with them much more.
5. Be Consistent & Set Limits
There’ll be points where you need to discipline your child. You’ll need to be consistent, but fair, with these. Before you do so, you should make sure that limits on behavior are clearly communicated to them – more on that below.
They’ll need to know how to behave and what constitutes bad behavior. By having limits on this, you can better ensure that your toddler behaves in an appropriate manner. That includes setting rules and making sure they’re consistently stuck to.
If you’re lax with this, your toddlers may think that they can get away with rule-breaking. The more you do this, the more ingrained it’ll become in their behavior. Avoid that by setting limits and disciplining where appropriate, alongside being consistent throughout this time.
6. Communicate Properly
Many parents believe their toddlers should do something simply because they “said so.” While that might work for a little while, it won’t for long. That’s when they can start to argue and seemingly talk back. In reality, they’re simply looking for more information about why they should do something.
You should communicate properly when you’re raising a toddler. Help them understand why you’re asking them to do something. Remember to do so in a non-judgmental way. By taking the time to properly communicate with them, you can help them better understand the world and why you ask them to do certain things.
It’ll make asking them to do chores and similar activities much easier over time.
7. Be A Role Model
Young children learn how to behave from their parents; they replicate how you behave. When you’re raising a toddler, you’ll need to behave accordingly. You have to be a good role model to them so they can copy your positive behavior.
Think of how you’d want your child to behave in certain situations and make sure that’s the way you behave. That affects almost every part of your life, from what you eat to how polite you are when speaking to people. If you want your child to engage in positive habits, then you’ll need to do so too.
Engaging in negative habits and behaviors makes your toddler more likely to engage in such acts. The less they see it, the less likely this is the case.
Make Raising A Toddler Less Stressful: Wrapping Up
Raising a toddler feels like a full-time job in many ways. It’s something that you’ll need to spend a lot of time and stress on. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make it easier for yourself.
Using each of the above tips will ensure that raising your toddler is easier and less stressful. They’ll also help you raise them the right way while bonding with them. What’s not to love?
