What is Positive Parenting? How to give your child what they need 

Positive Parenting focuses on empowering a child and making them feel significant. Rather than time-outs or concentrating on the negative, Positive Parenting encourages the parent to teach their children skills and reinforce what they do well. Here’s how these techniques can help you deepen your connection with your child and make you feel like a competent caregiver.  

What is Positive Parenting?

There are many ways to raise children. Positive Parenting is based on encouraging and motivating your child to behave well. Parents reward what their kids are doing well and help them learn from misbehavior. One of the concepts of Positive Parenting is about practicing kindness no matter what your child is going through in their life. Being kind and compassionate can help a child manage difficult emotions and feel more self-assured. Positive Parenting wasn’t always popular or the dominant strategy for raising kids. The widespread belief used to be that adults should be stern with their children. In the 1900s, an Australian psychologist named Alfred Adler asserted that children deserved to be treated with dignity and respect. That was a radical notion at the time. Adler and a psychiatrist named Rudolf Dreikers championed children’s rights to be treated with respect and positivity. Their work led to the concept of positive discipline. 

What is positive discipline?

When you hear the word “discipline,” you might imagine a harsh taskmaster parent. Maybe a caregiver is telling a child they can’t do something. Disciplining a child isn’t only about saying “no.” It’s more nuanced than that. Discipline doesn’t have to be a negative thing. It can have a positive connotation. Adler developed a concept called “positive discipline.”  A parent can lovingly set boundaries with their child and understand that their behaviors come from the motivation to matter in the family. According to Adler – positive discipline is based on three principles. 

1. A child wants to accomplish belonging and significance – they want to feel connected to the family unit and like they mean something within the group. 
2. Behavior is goal-oriented – Any behavior that your child does is to achieve a goal, whether it’s good or bad. For example, if a child is throwing a tantrum because they want something that they’re not getting. Behavior isn’t random; it’s occurring because the child wants to achieve something. 
3. When a child misbehaves, it’s because they feel discouraged – when a child acts out, it’s not because they’re a “bad kid.” It’s likely a cry for help. 

There are many different programs out there that teach Positive Parenting skills. A popular one is called triple P or PPP.

Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) 

Triple P is a Positive Parenting program that was developed in Australia. Parents around the world have been using these courses to learn how to empower their children. According to PPP (Positive Parenting Program) there are five principles to Positive Parenting. They are:

1. Make a safe and interesting environment for your children. Bored kids tend to misbehave.
2. Create a positive environment for learning. You want to make you’re receptive when your kid approaches you to talk. Positive Parenting is much about teaching and learning together as a parent and child.
3. Use assertive discipline, which means you’re not focusing on harsh punishments but rather setting firm boundaries.
4. Have realistic expectations. Remember that your child is going to have different emotional challenges depending on their age and personality. You have to have a sense of what your kid can handle. 
5. Remember to use self-care. If you don’t take care of yourself, you cannot take care of your children.

These are the five principles behind Positive Parenting, according to Triple P. However, there are other parenting techniques that utilize Positive Parenting.

What are the benefits of Positive Parenting?

Positive Parenting can have short-term and long-term benefits for children and parents. Here are some of the advantages of Positive Parenting

Secure attachment – One of the significant benefits of Positive Parenting is that children feel confident in their connection to their parents. 

Learning empathy – When you practice these techniques as a parent, you’re showing your kids that you care about their feelings and want to teach them how to empathize with others. 

Increased self-esteem – Positive Parenting helps your children feel good about themselves and allows you to feel happy about yourself as a parent. 

Do you practice Positive Parenting?

Parenting doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but there are many resources and articles you can find on the subject. It can help to read about different parenting styles as well as the unique challenges that parents face. Each parent has a unique way of caring for their child. Children have basic needs first, meaning food, clothing, and shelter. After that, a parent’s role is to provide love and guidance. Positive Parenting can help a parent do that. If you’re interested in learning more, it can be worth exploring these techniques. Maybe they’re right for you and your children. 

 

 

Marie Miguel Biography

Marie Miguel has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health-related topics.

Currently, she is contributing to the expansion and growth of a free online mental health resource with BetterHelp.com.

With an interest and dedication to addressing stigmas associated with
mental health, she continues to specifically target subjects related to anxiety and depression.