Here is an excerpt from the article: Five Effective Parenting Tips Because Your Kids Deserve the Best by Ken Stauffenger.

“Your Influence Is Greatest Every Day. Teaching is what you do every time you interact with your children. And it always happens today. There isn’t a moment when you are not teaching your children – if you’re helping with schoolwork, watching their team sports or just sitting down to the family meals. It doesn’t matter if you’re having dinner in your kitchen or if you’re a part-time parent who is having dinner at McDonald’s. What matters is that you’re really there. You are a guide and an anchor. Know that you are a teacher, that you are a role model. That’s how you will have the greatest impact on your children. Parenting is about the millions of “small things” and not about big events or sounding great when you talk about them. It’s about the quiet times and the little things.”

I encourage you to read the whole thing.  It’s always good to be reminded of the basics. 

Here is the link to the entire article:

http://www.dadsworld.com/articles/parenting/five-effective-parenting-tips.html

Here is an article from the National Fatherhood Initiative:

“Do you feel like life is one constant battle, complete with hair-pulling, name-calling, and “but Daaaaaad, she hit me first!!”…? We’ve got your guide to settling sibling squables and keeping the peace in your house. 

Set Firm Rules and Clear Expectations. Whether you have one child or five, if your kids know the rules and know what is expected from them, they definitely won’t behave perfectly, but you will be able to point to clear, known standards. This will keep things fair and help you to show your children that that is your goal. Also, clear rules allow you to teach your kids your values and what is important to your family.  

Get To Know Each Child.Your kids can sense if you have favorites and may act out accordingly. You may find yourself gravitating to one child who has similar interests. Or maybe you are avoiding time with your daughter because you’re just not sure how to relate to her. But, it is essential that you get to know each of your children – who they are, how they feel about different things, their interests, etc. This will also help you know how best to guide them as they grow.  

Create Space. Sometimes, everyone just needs a little space. Give your children separate chores or take some out with you on an errand while everyone else stays home. Yes, it is important that you kids learn to work together, but sometimes a little space helps everyone calm down. 

Don’t Try To Solve Everything. One of the great things about having siblings is it provides an opportunity for your kids to learn communication and conflict resolution. As your children get older – late elementary school and beyond – encourage them to work out their own grievances. Equip them with basic communications skills, help guide and facilitate conversations, but don’t always jump to fix it.  

With a little patience (okay, maybe a lot) and regular deep breaths, you can keep the peace in your house and help your kids work towards healthy relationships with their siblings.”

My wife and I have a 3 1/2 year old son and a 1 1/2 year old daughter.  They fight what seems like 60% of the time.  As a parent, all you want is for them to get along and play quietly together.  (Nice dream.)  But, having an older brother myself, I know that blissful idea is not reality.  Having patience and the ability to control your emotions is paramount. 

Just remember the last paragraph in the article — you can’t and shouldn’t try to solve everything.  Kids need to learn the art of negotiation and getting along, by themselves.

I hope this helps, at least know this:  you are not alone!  That just might be the silver lining that preserves your sanity. 

Be sure to follow us on twitter and become a fan on facebook, and thank you for supporting involved Dads. 

Have a great day!

Please take a few minutes and read our outstanding interview with our May 2010 Dad of the Month, Rob Ingram.  Rob did a great job elaborating on his role as a Dad, and explaining his point of view on the family and the challenges we face today.  I highly recommend you read Rob’s interview. 

Dadsworld is all about promoting invovled Dads, like Rob.  His interview and insights are exactly what needs to be getting out to the mainstream media.  Help us get the word out by telling your friends and family about our website, and be sure to let it be known that we are on facebook and twitter as well. 

Thanks for your support, and be sure to take a couple of minutes to read Rob’s Dad of the Month interview!

Take a Trip Without Leaving the House

By Rod. B.  guest writer for Dadsworld’s blog. 

Check out his blog at:  http://rnbergren.blogspot.com/search/label/KidsDads

Cost: $0 – $50

Quiet factor 0 – 90 db

What you need?
A Globe and the internet and/or a good library.

The Idea.

The idea is to explore the world at large.   To take trips and plan how you would get to that spot.   To maybe even eat a meal or speak a few words of the language you might encounter.

The Rub.

Have your child pick a spot on the globe/map at random,  As they get older they will want to pick more and more specific spots.   Then comes the fun part.

Usually in my house we will make the trip a week long process.  On Sunday we might pick the spot where we are going.  Then we immediately discuss ideas for how to get there?  I usually steer the family towards using as many methods of transportation as possible.  Say if we are going to the Yamal Penn. In Northern Russia.  Then first we will probably drive to the airport. Then fly to Russia, and then we might ride horses to the last part.

Monday thru Thursday we all spend sometime surfing the internet searching for pictures, languages, recipes from the spot where we will be traveling.  We try to spend a little time each evening 5-20 minutes talking about the new spot.  It can be quiet fun to hear the kids say that Mom can stay on the beach in Australia while we rent a boat and sneak up to the island of Kai Kecil (Indonesia) and get coconuts.  Just craziness.  Kids can be really inventive at this point in time.  Talking about how to help out the other children in Sao Paulo in Brazil and many other things that have happened.

Friday/Saturday we try to greet each other with the word for Hello in that language.  And maybe even make a meal that would be sort of traditional from that area.  Some of the meals have been spectacular. Others…well lets just say the dog wouldn’t eat it.

Benefits.  Obviously the children learn about geography.  They also learn respect for other people (cultures) and they really branch out in ideas on how fun differing types of travel can be.   But don’t ever discount the things you will learn.   Not just about areas of the world you thought you would know well.   But from the angles of thought your children would bring to the subject.

Rating:   This is a 10.   This is probably one of my favorite things to do with my children.   It is something we can all do together anytime and any place and we can have so many fun discussions when we are actually on the trips we have taken together.   When you talk about how exciting a plane trip is. You can then be amazed at what the kids are looking forward to during the trip.

Have fun!  Thanks, Rod!