Parenthood has always been a special thing for everyone. Produced by Jason Katims, the series ‘Parenthood’ had the cast of Dax Shepard, Bonnie Bedelia, Erika Christensen, Sarah Ramos, Lauren Graham, Monica Potter, Patriarch Zeek, Peter Krause and the list goes on. Wait, which parenthood am I talking about?
Don’t worry! I ain’t here to talk about the tv show ‘Parenthood’.
Parenthood is experienced by a mother and father. It is filled with new experiences, lessons, difficulties, and of course, it brings new smiles and love. Being a parent is an entirely new task, and we need to complete this task with all the tenderness and love we have.
Parenthood makes us see things more clearly, as we see them according to our children’s perspective. They make us learn things that we would not have even noticed otherwise.
There are lots of joys in Parenthood, and at the same time, there are lots of difficulties and challenges too to deal with. There are smiles and cries, irritations and understandings, and anger and care. But at the end of the day, only one thing remains back, love and lots of love!
Parenting and Parenthood is never an easy job. You would face several disappointments and obstacles on your journey towards becoming a good parent for your children. Parents desire to fill that “parental happiness gap” or the “generation gap” between their children and them, so that they could be called as ‘The Ideal Parents’.
But, is it the right thing to do? Is it achievable? The answer might be yes or it might be no. These gaps indeed create lots of problems, but every parent needs to decide wisely.
We always try to become role models for our kids to make them better humans in the future. If we look from far, then Parenthood is all about learning, teaching, and experiencing things. It gives you the chance to relive your childhood once again with your kids, with all the high spirits and energy. Here we are going to discuss all the sides of parenting, to make things a little bit easier for everyone who is a parent or is going to become a parent.
Parenthood: A New Beginning
What happens when you first get to know that you are going to become a parent? You feel several waves of emotions inside yourselves. They all seem incredibly beautiful and new, but they are a bit frightening too at the same time. You are all filled with happiness, but at the same time, some tears roll down from your eyes onto your cheeks.
You feel the extraordinary vibes and completely different when you hold your child for the first time in your arms. You are afraid that you may hurt their soft skin, yet you can’t resist yourself from touching their tender skin. That’s what parenting feels like!
Unbelievable feels of jubilation and the ticklish feelings of nervousness hit your nerve. You would get to face the 123 crisis where your child would learn counting, but make mistakes. You would get to see the baby walk but fall a lot. It marks the start of your new journey, a journey where you grow with the child, overloaded with love and pride.
This new beginning is never easy.
It is full of new difficulties and will test your patience at every step. After all, you are going to handle a newborn who doesn’t know anything about this world. You need to start everything from scratch again. Never mind because, in the end, everything is going to be worth it.
For making this beginning worth it, we need to get into the depth of things. Let’s dive in and collect all the pearls and gems needed to build a beautiful parenting empire.
Parenthood: A Journey
As mentioned earlier, parenting is a beautiful yet difficult journey. Being a parent is always a tough job. Nothing in life is or comes as easy as falling off a log, and in this case, don’t even try to get results without putting all the required efforts and energy into it.
The old saying applies here perfectly which states that the children match or are like wet clay. It is their parent’s task to mold them into if not perfect, some considerable shape. They are nothing without your support, love, and care; these are the basic ingredients of your Parenthood.
If any of these becomes less or more, then it results in imbalance. For avoiding these imbalances, try to become something more than just a parent for your child. It could be a good friend. But, hey, this requires lots of effort and some craftwork.
You need to work on yourself first for this, not forgetting that children scan you and tend to copy everything you do. This, in turn, demands you to be careful with your actions and even words. Let’s look at some simple tips for making this journey interesting and your Parenthood joyful.
1. Getting Involved
This is the most important aspect of your parenthood journey. Consider it as the foundation on which you are going to build your beautiful empire. In simple terms, every parent needs to have a strong familial and mental relationship with their child, as it is the most influential factor in bringing the jollity factor!
If you know your child’s strengths and weaknesses, you can easily guide them on their way to become a good human in their future. In doing so, you have to get involved with your kids. The best way to do that is to spend some quality time with them, taking note of their habits, noticing their reactions on different things, and having a keen eye on how they are developing with the surroundings. To sum up:
- Let them choose their toys by themselves. Don’t panic if your son is choosing Barbie dolls in place of cars, or if your daughter is choosing cars in lieu of dolls.
- You should play with them. There is no better way than this to spend time with your child.
- You should talk about things. Become their storyteller. Make them aware of the events occurring in the world.
- Try to understand their daily routines.
- Try to make the best out of your observations. Be an observer.
- Accompany them to their playschools or parks.
These things might seem little but only they could belittle the bitter sides of your relationship with the child. These little things can bring a significant change in your relationship with your child. They will definitely help you to build a positive and healthy bond. Because, at the end of the day, the things that matter are your little efforts, those little things, and not those costlier gifts that you bring for them.
Try to make an emotional bond with them, not a materialistic one, because the latter one is never permanent and long-lasting. It will only cause pain. But, an emotional relationship all about efforts and when did efforts start hurting anyone?
Raising a completely new child in this world is a fragile duty to do but you can’t help it! It is a need.
2. Sharing Always Helps:
Sharing is caring, a long lost thought, but effective to date. When you are in the process of Parenthood, sharing is one of your key elements. Believe me, it is one of the most essential parts of your empire.
Share everything. This is essential. Remember, you and your child need this bond.
- Share your childhood experiences with them.
- Share your highs and lows; don’t forget to make them open up too.
- Share about the mischiefs you used to do, and what were their consequences.
- Share your habits with them; try to relate. It is always helpful.
- Share your awkward plus proud moments with your kids. They need to have information of both sides of the coin.
- Share some secrets, and ask them to share theirs.
This will strengthen your emotional intimacy with the kids and cement your equation making it stronger than anything else. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your children acts as a jackpot in parenthood. It shapes your behavior towards them accordingly.
Knowing what they like and what they don’t, works a lot to build a smooth connection with children. And that is what, everyone needs in a parental relationship. Never miss out on this.
3. Be a Teacher and a Friend at the Same Time:
It sounds a bit hard, but once you infuse both of these in your character, then nothing it looks like a piece of cake. You can achieve the heights with it. This can bring a big revolution in your process of Parenthood. The fusion is capable of bringing that real joy of parenting out in your life.
It opens the doors and windows that let some magical fresh air inside. It is not that difficult for anyone who really wants to give their best for their child. Just some real efforts inside and there you go, it becomes super easy.
Actually, this is the key that everyone forgets to collect on their way to becoming an ideal parent, and the lock never opens. Being friends with your kids is the best thing you can do because that’s what they need most of the time. It’s a simple choice, and making this choice is always a wise decision.
- Teach your kids to be courteous but, at the same time, teach them to speak up to as a friend would do.
- Make them learn the importance of respect and make them believe that you’d be there to help them in any crisis, be it in trouble with their teachers or neighbors. The only condition here is, that the child should not be at fault.
- Teach them success as a parent, and make them fathom failure like a friend.
- Make them learn discipline, but also, skill them in the ways they can keep their childish side always alive.
- Make them watch inspiring movies, but don’t forget to accompany them in their movie genre.
- Talk to them about their studies and class, but don’t miss out when it comes to talking about their friends.
These small steps can do a miracle, without any doubt. They make your child comfortable with you, and you are no longer a strict Hitler type parent for them. You become lovable parents for them and mean the best friends to them. They shout out this to all their friends that their parents are the best in everything.
And, when your ears hear these screams of “Best Parents!”, the dream of becoming a role model for them, seems to be unfolding and come true. They will respect and love you at the same time because they know that you, too, do the same for them.
Parenthood: A Destination
There is nothing like a destination in this process of parenting. Actually, this is a lifelong process to be with! But, most of the parents think they have reached the destination when they see the little kids of their child, i.e, the grandchildren.
They take it as the final destination. It might be so. You feel a different kind of happiness when you have your grandchild in your arms; wherein you go back into the time and remember how you were holding your kid in the exact same way. You feel proud and it becomes a soul-stirring moment for you.
There is a joy inside that you made it till here, together.
You know you’ve succeeded in this process of Parenthood when you see your child taking the first steps and speaking for the first time. You know you were successful in being a good parent when you see your kid being helpful and nice to others or see them getting everything they wanted from their life. You know you did everything right when you see your child being successful in their life. These moments remind you that everything was worth it.
Maybe, that’s how life works. You create a human just like you but not completely alike. You teach them every basic thing, you put effort, and then one day they pass out the same love and efforts to their children. You know that you did it, and that was the joy of Parenthood for you.
It is different for every one of us; we look at it from various perspectives, and we have different opinions. But, for some reason, at the end of the day, the real joy of Parenthood lies in the smile of your child. That breathtaking moment when your child comes to you and says, “We did it together, it was all because of you!”, maybe that’s what every parent waits for, directly or indirectly.
Parenthood is the way we see things and the way how we choose to understand it. Maybe, everything ends there. You just need to observe, choose, and decide things wisely. That is what life needs.
That is what every kid needs. It is the real joy of Parenthood, and it is the real joy of parenting; it is the real joy of being a parent.
Last Updated on by Himani Rawat