Parent Child Relationship – Tips to Develop Healthy Bonding

Building parent-child relationships is essential for every family. You must have a healthy bonding with your kids to understand and help them. This helps keep the family together and happy. And, they also help with the physical, social and emotional development of the child. Studies indicate that a healthy parent-child relationship develops secure attachment in children and creates positive outcomes for the children and the family. Read this article to know how important a good parent-child relationship is and how parents can build it.

Importance of Good Parent-Child Relationship

It is clear that building a good parent-child relationship is the best way to keep your kids on track. But there are many more benefits to the same. Here are some of them:

• Helps develop a happy and content relationship with others in life.
• The secure relation with parents helps regulate emotions during difficult times.
• Helps the child to be optimistic and confident.
• Promotes the child’s mental and emotional development.
• Parents’ interaction promotes social and academic skills.
• Helps promote problem-solving skills.

Any parent-child relationship problem needs to be dealt with a proper approach to parenting. You have to keep a strong bond with your kids from the beginning. But you should also be flexible and change the approach as and when needed. You can’t behave the same way with a two-year-old and a ten-year-old. Read on for some tips to build a relationship with your child.

Tips for Building a Positive Parent-Children Relationship

To have a healthy relationship with kids, parents need to be responsive, trustworthy and loving. Here are a few tips that can help you improve your relationship with your kids:

1. Start from the beginning.

The bond between a mother and her child starts during the pregnancy period itself. As for the father, they have to get involved in their early days. Studies show that fathers who were involved with the kids in their early days had better bonding later in life. Thus it is always important to spend time with your child from the beginning itself.

2. Invest time and effort.

Parents love their kids naturally; spending quality time is part of showing this love. The more time and effort you put into this relationship, the stronger the bonding will be. Even though it is better to spend more time with them, you must consider their age before doing so. Teens might need privacy, while younger kids always like to have parental intervention and interaction. You have to understand what your kids expect you to do to improve the relationship.

3. Prioritise your relationship with your child.

Your kids should be your top priority until they grow up. Therefore, you have to spend as much time as possible with them. Making smaller schedules and excuses for your kids may weaken your bonding. Hence, take the effort to put them at the top of your priority.

4. Be available for them.

When your kids are growing, proper interaction is needed for them to improve their skills. You must be responsive to your child’s needs. This helps to support your kids mentally and will help to strengthen your bond. You should be attentive, loving and able to see things from their perspective during this time.

5. Emphasise.

One of the best ways to strengthen the relationship with your kids is to let the emotions speak. Help your children express their emotions freely. Be empathetic and make it comfortable for them to vent their emotions. This might not be easy to do for a first-time parent, but practice makes perfect. Once you have seen through their perspective more often to understand more about their behaviour, you will be better guided to help them as well.

6. Communicate.

As parents, you should have good communication with your child. It should be fair, firm and friendly to keep a positive impact. Always be clear about your expectations, especially about what they can expect from you and restrictions like ground rules. This helps to have some control over your child and improve your bonding. You have to control your kids maturely and calmly for a healthy and better future for your kids.

7. Get involved in their studies, friends, and activities.

More time given to your child can help make stronger bonds. It is noted in a study that the parents who get involved in their child’s life have a stronger parent-child relationship. This part of life involves spending more time with them, understanding their academics, and knowing their friends. Staying in touch with their teachers or volunteering at school will impress your kids more.

8. Listen actively.

Most of the kids like to talk about their life. They are likely to show this in the early days of school. Always try to listen to whatever they are saying. You have to stop whatever you are doing at the time and listen to them. You should maintain eye contact while talking to them as well. This encourages them to share more of their time with you.

9. Make family time important.

Have meals together every day and talk about your day with everyone in the family. This helps to improve your family bonding. Family outings, going to movies or events regularly will make some fun time for everyone.

10. Trust your child, and be trustworthy.

Trust is the foundation of every relationship. You must always be the trustful parent for them to rely on at any time. Earning this trust is a time taking process in which you must keep promises, give them privacy, and build confidence in the relationship.

11. Encourage your child

Children are always active, and they keep themselves engaged, but they always like someone to boost their confidence. Therefore, you must encourage and motivate them to build their confidence. When you criticise them on such occasions, they might be confused about themselves. So, keep them spirited with your words and support.

12. Respect your child.

Even though your kids will more or less look up to you to establish beliefs and opinions, they might have their own views on certain things. Treat your kids as individuals and acknowledge their opinions. This helps them to be more confident and to share their opinion with others as well.

Facts to Know About the Relationship between Parents and Children

A parent-child relationship can be of many types as the attitudes and approaches of both the parents as well as kids can be different. Here are some of the types of parent-child relationships.

1. Secure Relationship

Secure relationships are when kids feel secure with their parents. Parents’ care and trust create great bonding between them.

2. Avoidant Relationship

Here the case is the direct opposite. The parent is not responsive to the kids. This leads to kids becoming independent and taking care of themselves.

3. Ambivalent Relationship

When the parents have different priorities, this may happen. Parents are responsive at times and will not be available when the kids need them.

4. Unorganised Relationship

In some cases, kids do not get any attention. That’s when they learn not to expect from their parents and will have unusual behaviour in social life. This is most likely the case of parents with psychological conditions.

Parent-child bonding starts from the birth of your child. It has a lot of influence in your child’s life and the overall interaction between members of your family. You have to keep in mind that it is always better to understand them and know them better right from the beginning to build a positive relationship.

Also Read: Ways to Improve Your Parenting Skills