PARENTING: 10 Tips to Keep Up with Your Duties in 2016

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Matthew Imerhion

Parenting is like driving at full speed and multitasking while everything else becomes increasingly unpredictable; from mother nature to job expectations even down to family members. Parents who haven’t forfeited their conscience towards the family for the pursuit of career satisfaction will need a special set of skills and flexibility to adjust to the ever changing rules of engagement.

Here are a few tips to make sure you ‘remain healthy, happy, and unaffected’ regardless in the New Year.

Tip #1: Number 1
Take care of number One –yourself! You have to keep your eyes on your health and this means eating the right food at the right time, exercising, and finding time to relax. Do NOT mistake resting for recreational activities or quality time spent with the family. The latter can be spiritually and mentally refreshing and physically exhausting at the same.

Get even with all those chores and responsibilities and steal some time for yourself alone; you’ll be renewed and ready.

Tip #2: A Second Look
In your daily routine, do you wake up early and run around getting the kids ready for school/ getting ready for work, run around getting work done, run home to run around preparing dinner, fall asleep exhausted only to wake up early and resume running around again? I don’t think that even Hussein Bolt’s daily schedule involves so much running. Plan your time well. For example, use the weekend to plan out the week’s menu, your clothes and the children’s for the week. See if this doesn’t free up some time for taking care of number One and all the others.

Tip #3: The Third Party
Gradually, get your children involved in housekeeping chores. Teach them to be responsible by running errands around and outside the house, such as taking the trash out, doing the dishes, sweep and mop the floor as well as tiding up their environment. Apart from arming them with life skills, this will give you some relief.

Tip #4: The 4 Lettered word
Show yourselves LOVE, plenty of love and commitment. If you’re a single parent, show your own parents love. Show the young ones love too. Smile brightly in spite of mishaps; be generous with hugs and try, as hard as it may seem, to apologize when you lose it and bare your primal fangs. You will be setting examples that will echo throughout your children’s life and thought processes, reducing the stress of deviant, anti-social behavior.

Tip #5: Get in the Mix
Let down your hair and be social. Hook up with the right cycle of friends where you can draw strengths from each other. One cannot over-emphasize the benefits of having a social networking group where you can make great friends and learn great tips.

Tip #6: Get Intimate
Make plenty of love with your spouse, as this will help you relax a lot. In addition, taking time to have intimate and intellectual discussions with each other may help you reconnect and nurture your marriage. It may also help provide clarity to disturbing differences.

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Tip #7: Draw the Line
Be disciplined; learn to say ‘no’ and mean it, to your kids and yes, to yourself. Trust your heart and draw the line when you see that indulgence is becoming a habit with negative effects. When your kids want to spend more time watching TV, when they want to go to every other party or hang-out and when they want more sweets or toys (this probably applies to you too), say a firm ‘No’ and resist the guilt or urge to give in.

Tip #8: Count to Ten
When you find yourself in a situation that’s bringing you close to losing your temper, whether at home, in the office or on the street, try and take a deep breath and count to ten. Yeah, it may seem like a stupid thing to do when your kid, colleague or a stranger steps on your new suede shoes. Try to pause and tell yourself that it could have been worse. Life still goes on, finally! You might just be saving yourself from high blood pressure, a damaged relationship or unnecessary altercations.

Tip #9: Emm…Help
Get help or support when you’re tired or at a loss. Call up your mom, dad or colleague. Keep in touch with other survivor parents so that you could have a fresh perspective and exchange helpful ideas. Of course, you should also ask your husband or wife for help. In fact, they should be the first port of call. Survivor parents know that, like most things in life, you can’t do it alone.

Tip #10: Be Thankful
Showing gratitude for anything causes a multiplied boomerang effect. It wouldn’t take so much time to say, ‘Thank you’ to God for every new day and the little joys he gives throughout the day. It would also work wonders if you show your spouse and even the kids that you are grateful for those seemingly insignificant things they do. Be assured that they’ll be looking for more opportunities to bless you with some goodness.