5 Parenting Tips To Survive the Summer
Major parental techniques from conscious mum-doula, Annie Ortiz
17 July 2018
Dubai’s summer holidays can be long and tiring, as many mums in Dubai are faced with the challenge of how to parent their child 24/7 for the next 2 months –which isn’t an easy task! Whether you’re a mom who is tired of saying “no!” to your kids or you’re a mom afraid of setting limits, this article will share five major tips on parenting your child through the summer, to help strengthen your relationship with your kids and keep you sane!
If you are escaping to a nice summer destination, heading ‘back home’ or having a staycation (some may be having a work-cation), here’s the plan on how to survive the summer –with key parental techniques from a conscious doula-mom:
1. Plan to make time
Schedule your child to have a ‘one-on-one’ meeting with mum. This means giving your undivided attention and it’s imperative to make a social media detox during the set time. I usually take this time to sit near my kids and let them come in and go with the flow of what they want to do or talk about. Of course, you need to be good at persuading them that the tablet or even mami’s phone is not available until their brains switch-on and engage with you.
2. Become Conscious
Follow the consciousness trend of putting back the awareness on the self. In one sentence describe to yourself what is the major concern you have with your child and mirror how you are doing in the same area.
3. Become self-aware of your parental style
Pay attention to your tone and what are you reflecting. It may become more evident that you use a different tone with each child, if you have more than one. Chances are the tone you use for each is very different as they reflect your emotions towards the relationship, not the child. It is important to notice this and accept that they are aware of that. Integrate that awareness next time you address them with each petition or command, a change of tone or an explanation as to why you are using a different tone, it can make wonders in changing the dynamic.
4. Teach yourself not to compare
Learn about social conditioning and the impact it plays on your child and on your parenting style. Admit each being has a unique makeup and that is okay to protect them from social construction to give them a chance to develop according to their self.
5. Admit that the four points above are challenging
Learning new parental techniques and deciding how you want to integrate them, is an admirable self-improvement to take on. We tend to want to improve conventional skills and take on parenting daily as it comes, but have you analysed your source? We might operate from what we think we should do (which is based on social conditioning and may be coming from what psychologist identify as the ego). If you are reading this article, you are already a good parent; we all are the minute that we care, recognizing there is room for improvement and that educating yourself continuously is a positive. The challenge is reading further on, what is social conditioning and what part of it is integrated in our parenting?
Quick Guide
Plan 15 minutes to start, it will take about 5 for them to fully engage you, you might get 10 minutes of full on attention before they want to move on to the next activity; however, you will learn a lot of what is going on in their world. They will learn that you are there, and that they can come to you. Pay attention as to how they perceive the world around them, kindly remind yourself not to analyse how you see it as their moms or how you think they do. This will give you an insight on how to tackle day to day situations. They key element is to set the base to re-encounter the true self in you, to enable them to just be and nurture your own intuition to discover the super mum you already are. Feel free to share your summer experiences.
About Annie Ortiz:
Annie Ortiz is an Entrepreneur and Founding Doula of Unique Natural Birthing, also mother of two with a unique story of her own and works towards her vision of assisting mums with having a long lasting positive birth experience. Annie applies a holistic approach to Doulaing Coaching Style tapping into her former Youth Development studies to nurture both Mum & Child.