Having parenting goals and expectations for your children is an essential element of raising children in accordance with your principles. It is critical, however, that those goals and expectations are realistic. Trying to live up to unattainable ideals is bad for everyone's mental health, including parents and children. It is possible to strike a balance between establishing too high parenting objectives and expectations for your children and setting the bar so low that you feel you are not accomplishing what you want to do as a parent. Let's look at some reasonable goals and expectations for your family.
While each family is unique, and parents will set goals and expectations that are appropriate for their own family, there are several essential parts of goal setting that are universal. First and foremost, consider the three Rs when developing parenting goals and expectations for your children:
Relationship: The quality and purity of your connections with your children are crucial in guiding you towards your goals.
Respect: Mutual respect is essential for effective family functioning. It's a two-way street, with both parents and children demonstrating respect for one another via their words and deeds.
Reframe: Replacing a desire for perfection with acceptance of imperfection and the attitude that things are "good enough" helps to guarantee that objectives and expectations are realistic.
You're now ready to set expectations and goals, guided by these ideas.
Developing Realistic Parenting Objectives: Values and the Big Picture
Parents frequently develop parenting objectives that are focused on the day-to-day needs of child-rearing. Many goals are concerned with discipline methods, how to enforce expectations, and other structured approaches to daily life.
Such goals are OK to include, yet they are insufficient. Consider the big picture while setting goals for how you'll parent your child. How do you want your connection to be now, as they develop, and when they're all grown up and on their own? Focusing on your positive relationship with your children will help keep your goals reasonable; otherwise, they risk hurting the positive relationship you're attempting to develop and maintain.
Use the following guidelines to set realistic parenting goals for yourself:
- Determine your basic principles in terms of how you want your children to be. Honest? Responsible? Are you involved in your community? Are you a lifelong learner? Your aims and behaviours will be shaped by your values.
- The term "discipline" refers to teaching rather than punishment. How do you intend to discipline your children in light of this? How will you emphasise what is important?
- How do you wish to interact with your children? How do you want them to feel?
- How will your children know you value them? How will you know whether your children respect you?
Spending time creating and clarifying your parenting goals and ideals will assist you in moving forward. These objectives will frame your expectations for your children.
