In everyone’s life, a moment will come when they’ll have to consider, think about it for a while, and then choose whether they should or shouldn’t become parents. Parenting is the hardest job there is. There are no rules. Parenting guidelines are often blurred and lost between our wishes, our upbringing, and rules set by society. If you are expecting or planning to have a child, or you just want to check whether you are fit to become a parent, read these five tips that will help you make up your mind.
Plan and Practice Sleep Deprivation
What is the first thing you notice when you meet a fresh parent? That they are not looking very fresh! That’s right. A lack of sleep is the first challenge of your parenthood. Your baby will be in constant need of you, day and night. Between changing a diaper and feeding, you’ll probably get no more than half an hour to sleep, and this can go on for a couple of years.
Practice makes it perfect, so what first you must do is change the way you used to look at sleeping. It’s not about you anymore. Your sleep no longer has a purpose for you to enjoy yourself. No longer can you wake up just 15 minutes later.
Your sleeping time is now divided. You’ll cut corners, use every opportunity and surface to get a little rest, and somewhere deep down, you’ll be secretly hoping for that night when your child surprises you with straight 5 hours of sleep.
Learn About Babies and Study Your Baby’s Sleep
The relationship you’ll build with your child will be the most important relationship in your life. Before you become a parent, talk to other parents you know. It will help you make some kind of image of what parenthood should and shouldn’t be like.
When you look at all the mistakes that you think other people made, you’ll quickly see that each child is unique and has their own personality traits and temper. But it’s your job to deal with that and establish a healthy relationship.
Being able to understand your child’s needs and perspective will help you earn their trust. Trust means that your child will learn from you. After an initial mess with sleeping and waking up, you should start working on creating a sleeping schedule for your child.
This is the most important thing you need to establish in the early years of development. The right amount of activities, learning, and sleep will ensure that your child will have enough energy for everything that awaits. Also, they will learn how to distribute their energy in the right way and achieve everything they’re capable of.
Asking for Help Is Important
No matter how capable and independent you are or how strong the relationship is between you and your partner, being a new parent is a challenge. Besides sleep deprivation, stress, and worry for the young one, there are just too many things that can go wrong.
So don’t be afraid to ask for help. Whether it is asking for advice from elders or just asking friends to come to help you with everyday things, or you just want to get two hours of sleep, everybody wants to help new parents.
You can become so stressed that your baby will feel your stress and refuse to go to sleep. Calling someone neutral who is not so stressed can help you put your child to sleep.
Becoming a parent could be one of the greatest changes in your life. That fact alone could mean enormous pressure, so be sure to surround yourself with family in order to feel safer.
Try to Be Active and Engage in Parental Preparation Communities
Establishing a routine for your child and you is very important. It will help them learn to organize their life in the future and become better people. It can give you and your family a sense of stability and prediction you need to survive everyday obstacles.
On the other hand, after a couple of years of running things the same way, you may feel bored or trapped. Some family patterns you obtained may result in being stuck on some parenting issues between your partner or in the whole family.
That’s no reason to panic. There are a lot of parenting preparation communities that try to help struggling parents by giving group support from other parents who have encountered similar issues. Don’t be afraid to participate. Be prepared to hear that you are not alone in your struggle, and there are people who are overcoming the same issues every day.
Talking to other parents, looking at how they raised their children, and learning from their experience may give you a new perspective or help you come to terms with some issues you have. If that doesn’t help, at least sharing your fears or struggles with someone who understands you completely could be a huge load off your mind.
Mutual Understanding of Discipline
Most of the parents will tell you that the parenting job is never really over.
Getting the kid to sleep or eat healthily and develop good habits is just the beginning.
There is no recipe on how you should raise your child. Every person out there will tell you something different. They heard it from their parents, relatives, or friends and memorized it because it gave them some predictability and stability.
But the truth is, you can never be sure what’s coming next. The only thing that you can do is ensure the kid has a healthy environment growing up. The first condition for that to work is to have a good and honest relationship with your partner. Define clear goals for yourselves and your child.
Agreeing what kind of discipline you’ll have in your home is the most important thing. Ensuring that you and your partner have common ground on all of the issues of parenting will help your child grow into a psychologically stable person.
