10 Things You Should Immediately Stop Doing in Front of Your Kids

We are parents, but we are individuals with needs, addictions and vices. By virtue of our own vulnerabilities and habits, we succumb to them. We are being a bad example and most of the times we don’t even know about it. There are things we do that we shouldn’t do. There are things we say that we shouldn’t say. You can’t continue to be an irresponsible mess yourself and teach responsibility to your children. So, below are a few parenting tips for you. These are the 10 things you should immediately stop doing in front of your children.

10 Things Parents Need to Stop Doing in front of their Kids

1. Quit smoking

Don’t smoke in front of or in and around your children. It has health hazards attached as well, in addition to being a very bad vice. Passive smoking can cause more harm than you can imagine. It leads to chest and ear infections, asthmatic tendencies etc. While quitting smoking is desirable, you should at least stop doing that in front of them.

2. Let go off your phone

We love our gadgets as much as our kids love them. In fact, we are more addicted to the world of social media and its updates. Stop being on your phone- talking, surfing, clicking selfies, tik-toking, etc. You can’t be hooked on to your phone while you expect them to read that book.

3. Extra curricular activities

We unintentionally burn our kids out with a rigorous schedule and not even know about it. Stop trying to make your kid a jack of all trades. They tend to get anxious at a young age with a over demanding schedule. You might think they are just wasting their time, but kids deserve some quiet me time too.

4. Stop fighting

Domestic fights and yelling is the worst thing you can do to your child. Every child wants a happy home and great parents. Fighting and yelling gives a wrong idea of companionship to them. It sometimes gets inculcated in our relationship, and we see no problem with it. But, your kid is learning. Fighting and yelling shall become a new normal for them. You wouldn’t want that.

5. Overprotectiveness

We are by nature protective of our children. There is a thin line between being overprotective and making the kids vulnerable to every obstacle. We want them to not get hurt, support them in every decision, and mollycoddle them. That’s not the right approach. They need to face the hardships and learn how to tackle them. We need to teach them how to make decisions, not make decisions for them. So next time your kid tumbles down, ask him/her to brush off that dust from their sleeves.

6. Rush Rush Rush

Don’t run in the rat race and don’t make your children run with you. In a wake to make schedules work, we tend to rush through life. The kids are running to school, from school, to the dance class, to the skating class, to the taekwondo class and what not. Let them breathe.

7. Language

We might be used to being liberal with our cuss words, but you should not bad mouth anyone. Sometimes, single parents tend to bad mouth their ex, which is very wrong. We tend to put perceptions in our child’s head.

8. Imposing friendships

We want our kids to be friends with our friend’s kid. It doesn’t always work that way. The kid might not like it; you don’t have to impose friendships on the little ones.  Arranging play dates, etc. just so you could be with your friends is the kind of imposed friendship and socializing the kid might not like.

9. Comparisons

We are so prone to comparing our children with others. We mark their success and development compared to other children their age. Instead, you should focus on their personal growth. The moment you are vocal about comparing your children with other kids, you are making them a part of the rat race, even as a toddler. It also makes them privy to the feelings of jealousy.

10. Putting them on spot

It’s good that your child has learnt something, it’s not good to make them parade with it in front of your house guests. Let them be. They will start avoiding guests because of the anticipated spot you will put them on.

We have our best intentions for our kids, but we sometimes don’t realize we are leaving a bad impact. We fail to be all attentive of what and how we are saying things all the times. As parents, it’s important for us to be good examples, because they learn from us. It also is a road to self development. We grow with our kids, so embark on this parental journey with new learnings.