Improving Your Likelihood
of Successful Parenting

By Stephen Walton

Best Intentions are Not Enough

The term successful parenting has an individual and personal meaning; however, for the most part it is safe to assume most parents have the best intentions for their children…

...to be healthy and successful in life, to be positive, optimistic, happy and well liked by their peers , have an abundance of good trusting friends, get a good education, live a life of sound values and principles.

"What More Can a Parent Ask For"

Unfortunately, many parents struggle through their daily lives trying to get a handle on parenthood. Doing the best they can, the years pass ever so quickly, one day they find everything they hoped and dreamed for has slipped away.

Their children have developed negative attitudes toward society, or life in general. Turned to drugs, alcohol, dropped out of school, gotten into trouble with the law or perhaps teenage pregnancy. A multitude of unforeseen problems can emerge.

"Parents find themselves asking"...

Why?...

What happened?...

Where did I go wrong?

It Can Happen To Any Parent

Perhaps you know of someone that has encountered such troubling and challenging circumstances.

Who is to Blame?

It is important to understand that parents cannot always shoulder the blame for their child's negative developments.

When our children are born, they do not come with a handbook for successful parenting or guarantee of any kind. We do the best we can with the information at hand.

We look back at our own upbringing, critiquing our parent's methods; we model their positive techniques and discard our perceived negatives.

We read books on successful parenting and mimic our friends strategies that seem to work for them. We scour the internet for advice, or even take parenting classes offered by a multitude of resources.

Incidentally… after attempting to count the books on "Parenting" at our local Book Depot, I felt it more efficient to ask the manager to oblige me.

   His response was staggering:

He explained to me  there were 105 four-foot shelves, representing 620 different parenting subjects alone.

This represents 420 linear feet of shelving with "books on parenting.

For a more visual perspective:   One and one-third length of a football field.
Daunting and overwhelming… to say the least. Where does one begin?

Are There Any Guarantees
of Successful Parenting?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, however, in my infinite wisdom, I can assure you that:

Quite simply, there are… "No Guarantees" and it would be ludicrous to believe otherwise.

There are far too many diverse outside influences in your child's life that will shape their beliefs and attitudes.

Your best hope of improving your likelihood of successful parenting is in developing your own personal style of "Positive Parenting."

Parenting Style

A positive parenting style plays a major role in child development, and is most instrumental in your child's positive outcome. All your parenting strategy must be exercised with a warm, caring and positive approach.

It is absolutely crucial, particularly in the primary years, to ensure with the best of your ability, your entire child's influence is of a positive nature.

It cannot be stressed enough; the beliefs, values and attitude established in these early years set the foundation that shape your child's perspective on everything in life.

If guided by a framework of sound principles and values, instilled with unconditional love and consistency, your child will have a greater chance of evading negative influence and steer themselves to greatness.

Read the article below for a diverse representation of influences your child is exposed to.

Return to: "Good Parenting"..from.."Improve Your Likelihood of Successful Parenting"

Or…

Go to: "Positive Parenting"

Here we define "Positive Parenting" and provide guidance in developing your own "Positive Parenting Style".

Go to: "The Positive Parenting Centre"Home Page

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