Working together - Team Work as a Parenting Skill
Kids learn from example; and if you can involve your children in the household activities, you gain on several counts: they share your burden of work; they get your time and attention; and they learn to work as a team. The best parenting advice is to work together in raising your children and establishing child discipline. Children are children; and whether they are your own or your spouse’s kids from a previous relationship, it is the duty of the two people who make up their parents to work together to form their children’s discipline plan.
Children are experts in manipulating situations to their advantage. They know that if they can’t get something from one parent, they can always turn to the other. This not only creates unnecessary misunderstanding between the parents but also teaches the children to be opportunists. They get wrong ideas and learn to use unfair means to get their way. This can be avoided through team work.
It is very important for parents to work together for the welfare and stability of a home. Working together is a valuable parenting skill that parents must learn and practice. The first thing you as parents should do is to sit down and have a meeting, and work out a system that works for you.
If necessary, equally separate the subjects that a parent will decide on. For example, one parent handles outdoor activities while the other handles indoor activities. This will prevent the child or children from being able to play one parent against the other.
It’s a good idea to establish a norm that children must take the approval of both parents in each situation. This works very well in most situations except at times when one parent is not available.
All parents need to agree on the rules and steps to follow regardless of which method you decide to use for making decisions. Once you’ve decided, then go to your children and explain the situation.
Your children must have the perception that you work together as a team. It will help the older children to understand the situation and it will deter them from future parent playing. It works for smaller children just as well too, because establishing this routine will prevent parent playing from occurring.
Working together has much greater benefits than just stopping children from parent playing. After all, parenting is not only about going to the park or watching TV. You need to take decisions on what type and kind of education they have to be given? Which religion or faith a child should be brought up in? What type of child disciplinary measures should be taken? All of these questions and many more need to be addressed together as a team, and as they grow up, they should become a part of the team.
