May Jo Shaw

Following some helpful advice about parenting will help you keep your cool and forge ahead with enthusiasm even when the going gets rough. In case of a family emergency, make sure you have a list handy of emergency phone numbers and that everyone in the house knows where it is. Parenting comes with a set of absolute rules, so get to know and consistently practice them.

Once you become a parent, your job has important duties (whether you want them or not): Take good care of your child, keep them safe, and develop a good relationship. A few basic rules apply and must be done as a parent: Thou shalt not make anything more important than thy children. Thou shalt work to have great patience during times of stress.

Let's face it, parenting is hard work, and any help you can get is great! Take a look at these parenting tips so you can be an effective and happy parent and do it consistently with enthusiasm: You're not going to do everything right. When you find you've handled a situation wrong, correct the error, brush yourself off, and try again.

When rocking a crying baby doesn't soothe and quiet the little one, what's a parent to do? Use this easy flowchart to figure out your next move. You'll notice that at one point it says that babies just need to cry. This concept is a tough one, but think of it like this: Newborns sometimes just need to exercise their lungs.

One thing you can do as a parent is to be prepared for an emergency before it happens. Fill out a list with these important phone numbers and post it in the house so it's visible, preferably near each phone. Let your other family members (and babysitter) know where the list is located. Police: Fire: Doctor: Ambulance: Hospital: Poison Center: Neighbors: School: Work: Cell phone: Misc.

You may be at the time in your life when you expand your family. Oh happy, happy, joy, joy! But you may be wondering how your other children are going to respond to a new family member. That's a very good question, and one that deserves special attention. The news that a new baby is going to be in the house is going to prompt many interesting questions from your children.

You can reduce the number of times your children have outbursts in stores or other temper tantrums with a simple method of communication: Explain to your kids what you expect of them. Tell them how they are to behave. Kids like to know what's going on just as much as you do; they like being prepared and informed.

Teaching honesty and responsibility takes a considerable amount of time and patience, and it isn't anything like teaching your kids how to tie their shoes, where they understand the basic concept after a few lessons. You'll have to keep hammering away at these lessons for a long time. Can we be honest? You teach honesty by encouraging your kids to tell the truth and to let you know what's on their minds.

The fact that you need to discipline your children is not an open invitation to treat them with a lack of respect or decency. It also doesn't mean that you take on the role of Czar with your children as the peasant slaves. Letting kids be kids Kids will be kids and should be allowed to make mistakes, make messes, and get mad and upset.