Good Parenting at Home in Lockdown 2021

Good Parenting at home

Switch off your TV when alone with kids.

TV can be an easy option for any parent to learn good parenting at home. But spending too much time watching TV, surfing online or playing computer games is linked to children becoming overweight or obese .

Happy children who watch TV for more than 2 hours every day are more likely to have an unhealthy diet, less likely to eat fruit and less likely to be physically active. None of us wants to see our children or our loved ones depressed, obese, in front of computers or TV screens at all times, having behavioral problems, being sick, or experiencing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, the rhythm of our lives and our day-to-day habits that allow the TV to rule might damage our mental health. As per guidelines if you have a two year old or a 15 year old boy recommend that kids and teens spend no more than 2 hours each day on small screen entertainment.

Re-invent your time together

This is your ‘family’ time. Make sure that you eat and/or prepare at least one meal per day together as a family. Time together is your family fun . You could spend time being good parenting at home by cooking, playing, talking, walking together and kill the boredom.

You could sing, dance, do art together, or explore learning a new language. There is plenty of time and mental space that you will gain with no TV time. If you are being a single mum it can be little difficult for you to do good parenting at home & over the time you will become expert, you don’t need to learn how to be good mom to take care of your kids.

Re-invent your kids time alone.

Allowing kids to spend time alone is a big parenting step. There should be a balance between time spent alone and time spent with friends. Time spend alone is self soothing for babies or kids & plays an important role where a child learns to entertain itself through writing, reading, beading, singing, dancing. learning a new skill, this is a time for music, time for silence, art time. These are all structured activities, done at home or you can keep kids entertained with such activities will be an good example of good parenting at home.

Allow Free Play

There should exist a balance around time spent in a structured activity and time spent in a free play. Create a children play area and allow your children an opportunity of free play. Let them experiment, challenge the existent, and stay curious exploring new games. Do not invent new toys and new games for them at all times. Let their imagination become the driving force which plays a crucial role in parenting at home. Your child will become emotionally stable and learn self regulation of emotions. The child with the room full of toys is no longer able to focus, because of visual and mental clutter. Whatever is in his or her hands will not be enough, because the other toy is also reachable.

The toys are today made to be perfect, so they do not allow for the expansion of imagination. Different alternative schools such as Montessori and Waldorf suggest that early toys should be hand-made and without specific features, i.e. a doll without a face, a ball made of cloth, etc, so that children’s imagination can work its wonder in there children playroom. Perfect toys do the job instead of children, stopping them from the exploration game.

Let them go out and play.

There should be a subtle balance between time spent indoors and time spent outdoors to keep kids entertained. Just give your child a ball and a stick, and let them run wild. If you’re worried about their safety, just keep them in sight. You should Limit adult involvement in your child’s play.  Children get fascinated with gardens and green grounds. Outdoors create a golden opportunity to run, to breath, and to learn outside of the box. Children who learn to enjoy the outdoors learn socialization & will become adults who enjoy hiking, gardening, jogging, bicycling, bowling, adults that take care for animals and plants and protect the environment for good parenting at home.

Using outdoors we help children fulfill some basic childhood needs: racing, yelling, hiding, experimenting, a need for freedom and adventure and an opportunity to explore the unknown.

Invite children’s friends and family

Children need lots of opportunities with friends to develop their basic social skills and the whole range of social competencies. Children learn both cognitively and intuitively, observing the subtle inner relationships within nature and between people. Playing with friends in a children park, kicking the ball, playing hide-and-seek, or run aimlessly, are all keys to growing creative and inspired children.

–BY JAGRITI GUPTA