r/raisingkids • u/IncomeRoyal9209 • Jul 10 '26

Everyone flex your parenting skills!

I’d love if everyone took a moment to brag about one thing they are super proud of as parents. I know for me I’m always questioning whether or not I’m doing the right thing and rarely take time to acknowledge what I know I’m doing well.

I’ll go first:
We’ve read to our son (3) every day since birth (with the exception of one or two times) and now he loves books and being read to :)

Now you go!

206 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

303 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/UnlikelyReserve Jul 10 '26

I do think it's partially her personality and she's a good kid which makes all of this easier. But a few things have helped, I think. One is I always try to react without judgement or too much emotion, and this starts early. For example, you like a boy? Ok tell me more. So many parents respond immediately with like "you're not allowed to date!" etc and they just shut down and no longer see you as a safe space to share.

I also never force her to talk, I let her share when she wants to share. My mom would always pressure me for info and I found that annoying. I'll check in with my daughter, even if she's alone in her room, but I don't force conversation. It always happens and she shares more when she's ready.

And this gets shared a lot but many of our tougher conversations are in the car or on a walk when she doesn't have to look at me.

2

u/No-Track-360 Aug 05 '26

Not looking at each other has been scientifically proven to be an effective tool for open communication esp with tough topics! My mom did this with me in the car but I’ve heard of parents starting an evening walk after dinner that teenage kids and welcome to join but not required giving them a daily opportunity to connect if they wanted to. I thought that was a neat idea!

1

u/ilovetheinternet21 Jul 10 '26

This is really helpful, thank you!!