Parenting: What to Do When Nothing Else Seems to Be Working

Parenting is tough, there’s no denying that. And it is tough on many levels, too. One of the reasons why it can be so tough is because of the way children are so different, even to their siblings. You see, your style of parenting may work for one of your children and you may see them grow to be conscious of others and do well at school. But then, your style of parenting may not work for their younger brother and sister and they may prove to be far more difficult to bring up. This is just natural, so there’s no use fighting it. But, there are alternative things to do and try when your style of parenting just doesn’t seem to be getting through to one of your children. To see some examples of just what to do, make sure to read on.

Have your children aim for top marks at school, but don't make them the be all and end all

Of course, having your child achieve top marks in their tests, especially their final ones, is going to be deemed a great success. And rightly so, because that’ll mean their academic potential as well and truly unlocked. But, as your child progresses through their ‘career’ in education you should not put too much pressure on them in regards to achieving top marks. This is because, quite simply, your child’s best might not necessarily translate into the top mark. It’s all about unlocking your child’s potential, and this means allowing them to work at their pace. And, if they achieve a mark they are not happy with, naturally, they will try to better it themselves.

So, don’t put too much precedence on top marks as this pressure may be what is holding your children back from achieving them.

Get them involved in sports

Whether you and your partner or even the other children you have brought up are or have been involved with sports, you could find pushing a disruptive child of yours into a sport to be a fruitful exercise (excuse the pun).

It could be fruitful because it will teach your child many things about life, and not just about sport: one of the things they will learn is how to work as a team with others. You see, in team sports, your child will learn the characteristics of teamwork and how to both fit in and work in a team. And in individual sports, they will realize that they need people to fall back on and trust even in independent endeavors.

Involving a troubled child of yours in sport, any sport, could just open them up and push them in ways they have never been opened up or pushed in before.

Improve their diet in ways they have never experienced

If one of your children goes way beyond being a fussy eater and, more often than not, will flat out refuse to eat anything at all, then you most certainly need to try new things. By continuing to try to force vegetables on them when they have made their feelings clear about them, you will get nowhere. So, you need to change your style and approach.

One way to do this is to do all you can to make healthy food fun. This could involve decorating the plate in certain ways. This could involve downsizing on the things your child refuses to eat. This could mean growing your own fruit and veg and having your children play an active role in this growing process, such as allowing them to water what you grow. Or, this could even mean allowing your children to eat in any way they like, such as eating with their hands, just as long as they eat the healthy goodness you serve them.

Basically, you just need to make family mealtime a fun time and something that always feels fresh and new.

When nothing else seems to be working with a particular child of yours, you shouldn’t be alarmed. As stated above, every child is different and will take differently to your parenting styles than their brother or sister did or does. What you should do with a particularly troublesome child of yours is stay calm and take the advice above.