We have heard parents saying so many times to their kids that “all we want is you to be happy.” The definition of happiness has changed a lot as far as raising a child is concerned. Shouldering your dreams on your child will not make him/her a happily raised child. As parents, you must be wanting your children to be intelligent, healthy, mindful and most importantly happy.
Mostly, all parents want the same thing from the children. However, sometimes parents usually lose that emotional link with their children. Below, we will discuss some points that can help you to raise a happy child.
#1. First Of All, Get Happy Yourself
Ironically this is a bit selfish step, but very essential for the upbringing of your child. You need to be happy in order to inculcate happiness in your child’s life. The happier your efforts will be, the happier your child will grow. Try to become a cheerful, positive and fun-loving parent in order to make your child content and happy. Many types of research have established that if the link between child and parents is negative, then the outcome will affect the child a lot. Parental depression actually tends to cause a lot of negativity to the child as well. Being happy, hanging out with family and friends, laughing and sharing a light mood actually creates a lot of difference as the child grows up watching happy faces and being around happy people.
#2. Teach The Child To Build Healthy Relationships
The important thing that nobody can deny is teaching the child about the significance of relationships. The question is how many parents actually teach the importance of a relationship. It seems difficult, but it isn’t that complex as it looks like. All you need to do is to encourage your child to show little gestures of kindness to everyone and start building empathy. This is an essential skill that is to be taught to the child in order to make them a better person. If they embrace the relationship they have with people around them, they will cherish them and be happy.
#3. Teach Your Child To Be Optimistic
If you do not want your kids to be very crabby in their teenage, then teach them the importance of optimism that speaks volume and leaves a lasting impact in their life. If they will learn to always look at the brighter side, they will surely be happier. Most of the children at the age of ten years are half aware of the world. Therefore when they are young, that is the perfect time to actually teach them about optimism. Happiness and optimism are very closely related, and these two can be equated to balance the love and affection in your life.
#4. Teach Them Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is an essential skill which can be taught and not a trait which is innate. Assuming that your kids will learn this skill naturally with time is something not relevant to rely upon. You being the parent, hold the utmost responsibility to teach your child about the skill of emotional intelligence. In order to support your child in good and bad times, it is an essential aspect for them to be emotionally intelligent. Validating the difference between good and bad comes with emotional intelligence.
#5. Expect Efforts From Your Child, Not Perfection
This is actually a very important note for the helicopter parents who assume that their children should be perfect in everything. However, this is not a relevant trick to raise your children. You need to cool it down a little bit. Parents do not need to overemphasize the achievements of your children. More pressure on the children leads to anxiety, depression, and unhappiness. Therefore, appreciate their smallest efforts to biggest in order to reinforce them positively. If you want to raise your child as a happy and motivated one, you to need to praise them for their witty acts and smartness. Don’t expect your children to be experts from the start, they need time to learn. Keep motivating them to excel in whatever they do.
#6. Inculcate Happy Habits
In order to actually raise your child as happy, you should inculcate the positive and healthy habits in your children. But how can you actually build such habits in your children that can last long? The most important thing to do is to delete all the distractions from their lives and make them focused. You need to erase all the negative temptations from their life. Also, let them set their goals and then let them make efforts to achieve it. Improve and solidify the habits of sticking to their passions. Too many goals can make their focus go away.
#7. Give Them Enough Playtime
Parents assume that the more work the children will do they will grow more intelligent. However, children more necessarily need time to play in order to keep themselves active physically and mentally too. Providing enough time to play is actually a powerful tool to keep them creative, motivated and raise them in a positive environment. In order to practice mindfulness as well, you need to give the children enough time to play and freshen up their mind. To raise a happy child, you need to keep them away from stress. Playing time is not to goof around, it is quintessential aspect for the growth of the children.
#8. Teach Them Self-Discipline
As far a better future and success is concerned, it is the most important step in the healthy growing process. The kids who can discipline themselves are more satisfied and happier than the other kids. It is a very mature thing for a child to access his or her responsibility. The self-discipline leads to learning and processing information. School success, adolescent success, and future success mostly depend upon self-discipline. It is also not something that is inborn. This is also a skill that can be taught by the parents and counts as the most influential thing in the childhood.
#9. Foster Connections With Them
The way which brings surety to you that your child’s emotional well-being is promoted and happy is to make them feel connected. As Edward Hallowell said, “A connected childhood is a key to happiness”. Being parents, you need to cement your child’s present and future to secure their happiness. Crazy love connection never disappoints the children. They grow happily when you foster emotional connect with them. The social and emotional connection is incredibly important in the part of their growing process. It is not just about the quantitative connection, but also the qualitative connection that is fostered into children.
#10. Praise The Right Things In Front Of Them
Self-esteem and happiness are closely connected. In order to make them self-confident, you should never praise the bad things about them. Find their talents and praise them for the right things so that they instill proper habits in them rather than learning from the wrong deeds. Praising their intelligence and sharpness for the wrong things can also lead to an unhappy upbringing. Also, never compare your child to someone else. Even positive comparison can affect them negatively. Make sure you do not praise or appreciate something that you can not afford to see in your child. If you do it, you should be ready for your kid to follow it as well.
#11. Allow Them To Take Failures As A Stepping Stone To Success
Of course, every parent wants their children to get all the success in the world. However, they cannot be successful every time they attempt something. Allow them to take failure in the positive spirit just as the success. If you will start demoralizing your own child after they fail, that is the worst thing you could possibly do to hurt your child’s self-esteem. You can never lose hope after one failure. They have ample of opportunities to conquer in their lives and in order to face the tough situations fearlessly and confidently, you need to stand by their side in times of failure as well.
#12. Give Them Responsibilities
Feeling valued is the happiest moment in a child’s life. You should give them responsibility according to their age. Without the feeling of being responsible, they might feel excluded. Also, handling responsibility is an essential part of growing up. It will enhance the confidence of your child and let them create their self-worth. They will learn to organize things very well. The role that you give them can be easy in the initial stage, but it will definitely help you to inculcate responsible skills in them.
#13. Cultivate A Gratitude Attitude
Finally raising a child who appreciates and feels emotionally gratified towards everyone can relish happiness all his/her life. They should be introduced to reality. The attitude of gratitude will bring up the positive emotions in them. Identifying the things and expressing gratitude fosters the good habit of optimism as well. Not just feeling, communicating gratitude is also equally important.
We hope this guide is going to help you to raise your happy child in a positive aura. Let us know your thoughts as well in the comment below.
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