Old-fashioned ways can work wonders

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 10

Old-fashioned ways can work wonders

Chris Green recommends a few “oldfashioned principles” that can make parenting more effective: • Warm, loving parents create warm, loving children. © Touch, hold, carry your baby. Be close, be there. • Talk, chat and talk some more. Even the tiniest tot needs words and these all help speech development and understanding.

® Horseplay, having physical fun, being

roughed up by Dad is worth more than a season ticket to junior gym. • Education is not just the three Rs, it is also social competence, communication, loving life and those old values like honesty, decency and good manners. © Parents are a child’s main teachers. First, sort yourself out and then teach them as your apprentice. • Play is not only enjoyable, it is a great way to learn.

9 Confident parents do it better. They are more relaxed, more effective and produce more confident children. Get on with your own brand of childrearing, not someone else’s. Competitive childcare devastates confidence. • Parents with a goal and purpose in life have a better chance of producing the same in their children. • With parenting fit is the quality not the quantity that counts.