Conscious Parenting

Conscious parenting is an approach that helps you to nurture your child, to provide them with an open, calm, and safe environment, an environment that helps them to grow and develop, while shaping their present and future.

It is an approach that focuses on what you as a parent can do to support your child’s development, by learning to manage your own emotions, reactions, triggers, strengths, and limitations, while becoming more calm, present, and having a strong, supportive relationship with your child.

To understand what conscious parenting is, let’s first look at what unconscious parenting is.

Unconscious parenting involves:

– Allowing your emotions to impact your decision making, interactions with your child and discipline attempts, being over-reactive, overly stressed, anxious, or angry

– Allowing emotions from previous relationships, or your own childhood, to impact how you parent your child. For example, if you weren’t given many boundaries as a child, you may repeat this pattern with your own children, or go the opposite way of being strict or controlling to overcompensate for what you missed out on.

– Emotionally manipulating children, without even realizing you are doing it

– Not seeing your child as an individual (over controlling their behavior and not allowing them to develop their own identify)

– Being reactive and ego based, as opposed to be calm and centered.

– Lack of emotional attachment, lack of compassion and not being willing to see things from your child’s point of view

Conscious parenting, is an approach that:

– Focuses on self-reflection and self-regulation

– Helps you to control your own emotions and be fully present in your interactions with your child

– Helps you to identify and heal from your own wounds, so you are not unconsciously bringing these into your relationship with your child

– Helps you to identify your own sources of stress and your own triggers, so you are not unconsciously passing these onto your child

– Provides a different framework for you to understand your child and their needs, helps you to relate to them as an individual

– Allows you to react and communicate with your children from a calm, relaxed and present place, as opposed to an ego based, reactive and emotionally charged place.

Benefits of conscious parenting:

– Focuses on self-reflection and self-regulation

– Creates a positive environment that promotes growth and development for children

– Cultivates mutual respect and trust within the parent child relationship

– Teaches that conflict isn’t always negative, it can provide opportunities for growth and learning too

– Increases Emotional Intelligence in children

– Supports the development of a strong identity in children

– Strengthens the parent-child relationship

– Helps children to make and develop other relationships

– Helps children to listen and understand, rather than following orders

– Supports better communication with your child