Raising Emotionally Healthy Children: Feeling Important

Why Kids Needs to Feel Important

Second in a Series of Articles on Raising Emotionally Healthy Children

Guest Post from The Children’s Project

Read the first article in this series: Respect

Another critical emotional need of children is to feel important.  Feeling important refers to a child’s need to feel: “I have value.  I am useful.  I have power.  I am somebody.”  The following are examples of how parents obstruct or enhance a child’s need to feel Important.

7 Ways to Raise a Good Listener

Raising a Good Listener

7 Tips on How to Make Kids Listen

Ask moms how to raise a good listener, and you’ll be met with a variety of responses. Some, like Eva Gavin, will laugh out loud and say, “If you write about kids who ignore their parents all the time, I’m your woman.” Others may tell you they have it all together and that their children always listen to them and do everything they say (don’t trust these women!).

So many of us are at a loss when it comes to teaching listening skills. Parents are busier than ever, and that can sometimes make it difficult to just stop and listen to our children. Yet making sure you raise your child to be a good listener is crucial for many reasons. For example, he needs to be able to follow directions at school, in college and at a job. He also needs the practiced skill of listening to make and keep friends, snag a spouse and deal with a variety of people in everyday life.

So how do you become one of those moms whose children don’t tune her out?

Help Your Preschooler Make Friends

Preschool Friendships

How to Encourage Preschool Friendships

 

by Dr. Caron Goode

During the preschool years, children learn a lot, including how to be a friend. Up until now, your child has mostly engaged in parallel play with her peers. Around the age of three, she will begin to show interest in the children around her and perhaps even mimic them. This imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It means she wants to be friends.