How to raise a happy child, in 8 steps

One of the greatest wishes of a father is that his son grows up healthy, happy and has great success in all facets of his life.. But educating a child is not always easy, and it can happen that many parents, in an attempt to give their children everything, abuse overprotection and end up pampering their children.

A happy child is not one who has a house full of toys and who is spoiled for everything, because excessive gifts can cause a child to grow up spoiled. When you love so much In this sense, the behavior of parents and their way of educating their children will affect their future personality and their well-being and happiness throughout their lives.

• Related article: “The 8 basic tips to avoid spoiling your child”

How to raise a happy child

Being a good father is not giving him everything a child wants, including her whims, nor being carried away by her demands and manipulating him. But a good father offers his descendants an education that helps them become emotionally strong people for the future and prepared for the good and bad moments that life will bring.

If you are a parent and want to know what you can do to make your child grow up happy, in the following lines you will find 10 tips for your child to grow up emotionally healthy.

1. Teach him to tolerate frustration

In life not everything is rosy. There are good times and bad times that we have to live. In order to grow as people we must be able not only to enjoy the good moments that life presents us, but we must know how to deal with those situations that are not so nice.

Frustration tolerance is one of those skills that allow us to cope with life and that they are essential to solve problems and take advantage of bad times to grow as human beings. Developing tolerance for frustration is developing resilience and the ability to overcome problems. People with low frustration tolerance are vulnerable to emotional pain, are impulsive, and have difficulty adapting to changing environments. Therefore, it is important to educate in values ​​such as effort, being consistent and setting an example, setting limits for your children, among other behaviors that you can find in our article. "How to teach your children to tolerate frustration, in 6 steps".

2. Recognize your child's perspective and empathize with it

Little ones feel emotions too. In fact, Paul C. Holinger, a professor of psychiatry at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's in Chicago, identified nine “cues” that little ones use to communicate their feelings. And it is that parents can compare the feelings of children with those of adults, leaving aside that their mental development is in the initial phases.

The author argues that when a son hits a brother or throws toys, it means that he is distressed and that is his way of expression. Although your reaction may seem out of proportion, recognizing the signals that our son is sending us helps enormously in treating him appropriately. Empathizing with your child is key to building trust and being a good parent.

3. Communicate and listen to your child

While acknowledging your child's emotions and empathizing with him is positive for his happiness, so is communicating and listening to what he has to say.. Children need to feel important and loved, therefore it is good to listen to what they have and communicate appropriately in order to show trust and strengthen the bond of affection.

4. Don't give in to tantrums

It may seem that giving in to tantrums is the best option for our child to feel good, but this is a way to reinforce negative behaviors.. If we give in to the tantrums, we are giving him to understand that he can get what he wants if he throws tantrums or cries. Not giving everything up front can be a good alternative for our son to begin to value things.

5. spend time with your child

Children should notice that parents feel love towards them, because the parental figure is necessary for the healthy development of a child. Spending time with the children is enriching for both parties, which increases the trust between them. Read stories to your child, play with him, teach him new things, take him on excursions and have fun by his side.

6. set limits

Setting limits may seem bad, but it takes some discipline for children to learn that life has limits and they cannot do what they want at the time they want, and so they are aware of what they must do and how far they can arrive. It is not good to be an excessively permissive parent, because children need to have a pattern by which to guide their behavior..

7. praise their achievements

For a child to be happy, he must have high self-esteem and self-confidence, which allow him to face the less pleasant moments of life.. People usually highlight the bad moments of our children, but we must also praise those behaviors that are positive, with the intention of giving them feedback and as a way of rewarding what They do well.

8. Don't put labels on it

Obviously, being so young, you will make many mistakes, give in to impulses, and much of your behavior will be far from exemplary; it is totally counterproductive to have an idealized vision of the child's mind. However, as fathers and mothers, we must make constructive criticism directed towards their inadequate actions, and not towards their identity or their "essence" as a person. Therefore, it is recommended Do not put labels on the little ones in the house; that is, to dispense with nicknames with a clear moral charge (for example, "hooligan" or "clueless"), and not criticize them using adjectives, but rather emphasizing the verbs. That way they can learn from mistakes instead of convincing themselves that they are predestined to behave in that problematic way.