WANTED: A FOREVER FAMILY

Ten Tips for Raising Happier and Healthier Children

 

 

1.      Be warm, loving, and responsive. When children receive warm, loving care, they are more likely to feel safe and secure with the adults who take care of them.

2.      Respond to the child’s cues and clues. Recognize and respond to sounds, movements and expressions that your child makes. This will help your child feel secure and attached.

3.      Talk, sing, and read to your child. All of these things help your child’s brain make connections it needs for growing and learning now and for learning later on.

4.      Establish rituals and routines. Teach your child to know when it’s time for bed by developing routines such as singing a song and pulling the curtains - daily routines and rituals associated with pleasurable feelings are reassuring for children.

5.      Encourage safe new experiences and play. As infants grow, they begin to explore the world beyond their caregivers. Encourage this exploration. While we may think of learning as simply acquiring facts, children actually learn through play.

6.      Make television watching selective. Watch television with your child, and talk about what you are viewing. Don’t use TV as a babysitter.

7.      Use discipline as an opportunity to teach. In addition to consistent and loving supervision, teach your child limits. Never hit or shake a child!

8.      Recognize that each child is unique. Children grow at different rates. Their needs and feelings about themselves reflect, in large measure, parents and caregivers attitudes toward them.

9.      Choose quality child care and stay involved. Visit your child care provider often, and seek someone who responds warmly and understands your baby’s needs.

10.   Take care of yourself. Parents need care too. When you are exhausted, irritable, depressed, or overwhelmed, you may have a harder time meeting the needs of young children.

Mean Moms & Grandmas Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean ole Mom told me: I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home. I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep. I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes. I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren't perfect. I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart. But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it. Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too. And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them. Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast. When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too. Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less. We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do. She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really tough! Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door; so she could meet them. While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16 . Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault. Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was. I think that is what's wrong with the world today. It just doesn't have enough mean moms

Many are reluctant to open their homes to needy children because they have been misinformed or don't truly understand what foster care or adoption is all about. Please click on the link below to learn more about providing care to these very special children. I think that you will realize the potential rewards attached to loving a child of your choosing. This video will hopefully persuade you to seek more information about this process. Every child deserves the love of a family! 

http://www.thevideosense.com/video/Keeping-Kids-Healthy-Adoption-A-Forever-Family-