Healthy Family and Relationship

Knox (2018) states that a parent’s main purpose is to guide a child to make the best decisions they can in life. There are many roles that parents fulfill, such as a caregiver, emotional resource, teacher, etc. (Knox, 2018). But often, these roles become complicated as children grow older, and parents have to adjust their parenting styles. There are many good and bad aspects of parenting, so to discuss these further, Jenny, a well-practiced parent, was interviewed on her ideas.

Jenny first stated that by far, the most rewarding part of parenting is seeing your kids succeed, or rather, do better than the parent may have done in their past; therefore, it is important to have the right balance of discipline, expectations, and communication. From Jenny’s description of herself, she would best be described as an authoritative parent. Jenny tried to maintain a good relationship with her children, but would make sure there were moderate expectations that would help them achieve their goals (J.M. Vaterlaus, personal communication, October 23, 2018).

The next thing Jenny mentioned was that the role of each person in the relationship is greatly affected once kids are brought into the equation. She stated that there definitely is less time for husband and wife to spend alone time together. J.M. Vaterlaus (personal communication, October 9, 2018) brought up the fact that marriages require more work once kids are brought in. Family time may become more prominent than couple time, therefore, making sure to schedule both types of activities is important in maintaining a healthy marriage and family. Knox (2018) also states that the degree in which a baby negatively impacts spouses is also dependent on how upset the infant gets regularly.

One of the last things that Jenny brought up, was the idea that the hardest part of helping kids is when they have problems in their daily life, especially adult children who feel independent and don’t want to be helped. According to J.M. Vaterlaus (personal communication, October 23, 2018), the best way to help a challenging child is to have positive discipline, and to have five positive interactions to one negative interaction. There is a strong importance in having a structure and to give responsibility to the child as well. According to a peer reviewed article done on challenging behaviors within children, previous research was validated in that in child care programs, children with challenging behaviors are a serious concern. While there are many strategies that the participating teachers in the study used to try and address the problems found within the challenging children, few strategies were found to be enforced in an individualized manner. Therefore, the researchers of the study concluded that there is a strong need for teachers to spend time aiding young children with challenging behaviors in a positive direction, and to allow for social and emotional development in a supportive environment. (Quesenberry, A.C., Hemmeter, M.L., Ostrosky, M.M., Hamann, K., 2014)

In all, parenting has many effects, good and bad. There are many rewarding aspects of parenting, while there are also multiple challenging aspects. Family and couple time are also a big factor in maintaining a healthy family and relationship, which can be difficult to balance. But in the end, creating an emotional and supportive environment is one of the most important concepts of parenting.

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