We always try to be the best parents ever, but sometimes we do things that we may regret doing later. Based on my experience, one of the things I did that I consider I did wrong was solving their own troubles. We might think, as I did, that toddlers are not capable to dress themselves, fix their rooms, and even feed themselves! We tend to underestimate our children’s capability to do things and, when they grow older, they get used to that. Children are smarter than we think and we need to give them the opportunity to learn to live as individuals and still do our duties as parents. We should teach our kids and let them learn and practice. So, instead of solving their situation, I taught them how to do so and they learned and did.
Another thing that comes to my mind is eating habits. At young age, I let them decide what they wanted to eat. I remember how I felt when I was forced as a kid to eat something that I did not like. Hence, I did not want my kids to go through the same thing. After I went to college to learn about nutrition science, I realized the big mistake I made. I was depriving my children from a healthy diet. So it took me more time than the usual for my kids to appreciate new foods, especially fruits and vegetables, but it did happen. The sooner we offer a healthy diet to our children, the better. One hint: setting an example as parents is the easiest way for them to appreciate new foods, I did and it works. This should be applied not only for foods, but everything else. It is important to set limits and be consistent.
Talking about being consistent, it is important to follow through with consequences when they do something wrong. Often times I ground them and, later on, will let them play after I said they were not going to. Eventually, they were not taking me seriously. If we say something, we have to mean it and enforce it. Afterwards, I got their respect back. We should learn from our mistakes and make necessary modifications to enhance our parenting skills. We can educate, discipline them, and still show them how much we love them.