- Enjoy every moment you have with your kids, because once they hit middle school, they’re largely gone.
- Write a poem to your child every year on their birthday. Also keep a family diary and/or a diary of your observances of and feelings for each child.
- Take tons of photos, and just put them into a box.
- Make a videotape for each kid of all their musical performances, from when they start playing an instrument. Those are videos you’ll actually want to watch.
- Teach your kids to put their head under the water early (by age two).
- Require your kids to learn the skills the can only learn well as children – piano, ballet, foreign language.
- Cultivate family traditions.
- Have family meetings regularly.
- Have family work parties – cleaning, cooking, bread baking, gardening.
- Take vacations.
- Do not put children in daycare if it can possibly be avoided: work less, have a relative care for the children, take child to work with you.
- Parent with a combination of Attachment Parenting (William Sears and others) and Tough Love (John Rosemond, Gregory Bodenhamer and others).
- Certain mundane things must be emphasized: brushing teeth, picking up after self.
- Achieve a balance in how much you control your kids. Give clear advice and recommendations; but it may be best to leave what they do up to them (especially as they get older).
- Don’t worry about children “not eating enough.” It’s a good habit to acquire. Conversely, don’t let kids eat desserts instead of meals. Only after meals.
- “Just this once” can be a useful strategy that avoids wars.
- Don’t let kids give in to their fears. Require them to do things that are a good idea, even if they’re scared (of course help prepare them in every way you can, and be sympathetic).
- Parenting is a balance of learning from your children, loving and having fun with them, and battling with them to get them to do the right thing.
- Other favorite childrearing book authors: Linda & Richard Eyre..
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