Every parent wants to do the best they can for their kids. For most people, it’s a steep learning curve when they first arrive home with their new baby and they don’t really have a clue what they’re doing. All parents are pretty quick to pick things up but if you really want to be the best parent you can be, you need to be an expert. Fortunately, there are thousands of expert resources out there that can help you to learn everything you’ll need to know on the most exciting journey of your life. In the weeks and months before the baby comes, spend some time making good use of these resources. It’ll be a lot less daunting when the big day arrives.
Get A Degree of Your Own
This sounds like a pretty drastic idea, but there’s no better way to know exactly what you’re doing as a parent. One of the most important things when you’re raising a child is understanding them, and the things that affect their development. Your choices in those early years are very important so it’s vital that you get things right. Getting a degree doesn’t mean going back into education full time, you can do an Early Childhood Development Degree online. Being able to do it in your own time from home allows you to balance it with the rest of your preparations for parenthood. You will learn everything you need to know about what’s going on with your child and how to deal with the hurdles that every parent faces.
Books
If a degree is too extensive for you, you can still pick up some of that information elsewhere. There are plenty of modern resources but we’ll start with a good old fashioned instructional book. There are so many out there so you’ve always got to be careful what you’re choosing.
The Happiest Baby On The Block by Harvey Karp is over fifteen years old, but the advice inside is still as good as it was when he first published it. Tantrums and screaming fits are the part of parenting that everybody fears the most. It’s difficult to know what to do when you feel like you aren’t in control of your child. This book focuses on ways to deal with the problem and bring a bit of harmony back to the house. One of the most sensible pieces of advice he gives is also one of the simplest; get some help and don’t try to take everything on yourself.
Bedtime is another huge challenge that parents face and there are lots of different techniques for getting them to sleep. Countless people have claimed that theirs is the best but one of the favorites is still The Sleepeasy Solution. Written by two psychotherapists, the basic method involves letting your baby cry for a certain period. You extend this period every time and eventually, they learn to sleep on their own and you can get a good night’s rest. It boasts results in as little as three days, although it does vary from child to child.
Apps
Books might be a bit old fashioned for you, and if you want a more immediate parenting tool that is always at hand, why not try some of the many parenting apps?
The reward chart has been a staple of parenting for the last few decades, but kids these days respond better to a phone screen than they do to pen and paper. So, it was only natural that somebody developed a reward chart app. iReward chart lets you create your own virtual reward chart that can be shared on everybody’s phone. Making it like a mobile game will encourage the kids to work extra hard to get their stars.
Knowing what to feed your kids is always a balancing act. When you live a busy life, cooking healthy meals seems impossible. It doesn’t have to be if you make good use of the Dinner Spinner app. You can put in all of the ingredients that you’ve got and it’ll give you quick and healthy dinner ideas. It’s perfect for those days when you don’t have time to buy groceries and have to make do with what you’ve got.
Don’t bother buying an expensive baby monitor, just use your phones. The Baby Monitor and Alarm app lets you use two phones as a baby monitor and a receiver and works in exactly the same way as a traditional one, without the price tag.
These are just a select few of the amazing amounts of parenting help that is available. If you don’t take advantage of them, you’re missing out.
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