Growing up in any family set-up can be amazing, the happiness that growing up in the presence of those you love is encouraging, it can always shape you into a responsible individual.

There are things any parent would always advice their children not to practice or do and a good example was always not taking rides or gifts from strangers but in some ways a child would still accept gifts and how you handle this as a parent would determine so much. In any African set-up, you would be punished but it was great how a parent would still listen to you and advice not to do it again. We share a lot on the previous post, check it out in case you haven't and this week we are still going to be sharing more. Let us talk about some of the things we should or should not do as parents.

Let your kid take the lead, this not only helps in building a relationship with your child but also helps in molding and shaping their confidence and interaction with the other kids.

Don't protect your children from failure, not every child is ever going to be perfect and the early you realize that, the more aggressive you will be towards shaping their future and as much as you love them, talk to them about some of the things failure will bring forth if they do not work smart,train your kids to always work towards being great and not too much focused on the mistakes. Be bold enough to talk about failure with your kids.

Do offer praise, when your child does something encouraging,always praise them this not only builds their confidence but also helps them growing knowing you will always have their back. Buy gifts whenever you can and encourage them to do more. This helps in building their self-esteem as well.

Don't criticize and compare, this is one great mistake parents make at times when trying to bring a point out and what they they never know is the impact of this on a child's growth. You ever interact with these kids who will always tell you mom asked me to behave/talk/dress like the kid across the street? Now, this can ruin your child parents, of course there is a way you would want your kid to behave, probably a manner in which you'd be proud as a parent right? But what about what your child wants? Find ways of correcting your child without having to criticize and compare your child with someone else because they are not the person you want them to be like, they are your children and that is just it, please understand children are different.

As a parent don't always hide the negative and this is what I mean, your child will make mistakes once in a while, they'd do things that would make you question a lot of things about them but that does not mean that you have to hide that from them just because you love them, yes you love them but are you really helping the situation by doing this? think about it from this perspective, you are this parent who always praises their child of the great things and how great of a kid they are but when they are on the wrong you don't talk about it, how will they ever know that whatever they are doing is wrong if you do not talk about it? You are a parent and once in a while you will find yourself not on your child's favorite side and it is okay, be firm enough to talk about their negatives and help them get better, being quiet about it won't help them in future.

It is also great to set limits and be consistent with your discipline.Discipline is key in every household and the goal of discipline is to help kids choose acceptable behaviors and learn self-control. They may test the limits you establish for them, but they need those limits to grow into responsible adults, being consistent with discipline helps your child understand your expectations and grow into a responsible person.

As you walk through this beautiful journey of parenting I will leave you with this quote. ''Children will never tell you I had a bad day,can we talk? they say,will you play with me?''

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