Conscious Parenting

One of the keys to successful parenting is conscious parenting. Conscious parenting is creating a parenting plan, noticing your own behavior, noticing your child's behavior, and noticing your environment.

A parenting plan is a list of positive attributes that you would like to see in your family. Think about how you would like your children to behave and feel, and how you would like to respond and feel. Create a basic routine for your days, so you know basically what you would like to happen and when.

Noticing your own behaviors is key because your children respond to you. Notice if you are feeling stressed, happy, angry, or sad. Go over what you've been doing lately with your children. Have you yelled at them? Have you hugged them? Have you been busy?

Take time to really notice what your children are doing. Is your child starting to whine? If yes, what is going on at school or daycare? Are they growing, or reaching a new developmental milestone? When children are reaching a major mental or physical milestone, their ability to control their behavior often decreases substantially.

A conscious parent doesn't just react in the moment, but prepares some ideas in advance. Just take a few minutes when you have them to plan the answers to questions like these: "The next time my baby cries and I don't know why, what will I do?" "The next time my toddler gets really angry and hits me, what will I do?" "What are 3 things that my child really enjoys that I could use as a reward?" "What are 3 things that taking away or not letting my child do would make effective consequences?" "What will I do the next time my baby cries in the middle of the night?"

Having a repetoire of answers for these questions takes a lot of the pressure off in the moment, and reduces stress.