Parenting advice is everywhere. You can’t walk out the door without someone commenting on your parenting choices, whether breastfeeding or formula feeding, if your child is speaking soon enough, or how you dressed your child today. While people have good intentions, it is overwhelming and can feel critical. Learning how to sift through the mountain of advice and shield yourself from the influx of opinions can help keep you from losing your mind.
Parenting takes many different shapes and no parents will agree on every topic. The most important parenting strategy is to parent from a nurturing place. Nurturing parenting just means to care for, bring up, and nourish. Obviously, nurturing parenting can look different even when parenting different kids in the same home.
The most important parenting strategy is to parent from a nurturing place.
One strategy of nurturing parenting is to focus on needs. Not just the needs of the child, but yours as well. After all, if your tank is empty, how can you pour into your child? There are six main areas of need, the SPICES of life: Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative, Emotional, and Spiritual. Many meltdowns can be prevented by paying attention to your child’s needs (and your own) and teaching them how to communicate their needs.
What area does your child have an unmet need? What about you?
Information adapted from the Nurturing Parenting programs