Ten Tips for Healthy Parenting

Parenting Tips for Parents of ADHD Children

Here are a few tips that I hope will be helpful to you as you invest your day in raising our next generation. Feel free to leave other "quick tips" in the comments at the bottom of the page for others to read!

• Know the difference between big things and little things.
• Know the difference between incompetence and rebelliousness.

  If you child does something out of incompetence, then take the time to teach your child how to do it right.

  If your child acts out of rebellion toward your authority as a parent, then this behavior needs to be disciplined or punished, and cannot be tolerated or accepted.

• The word "discipline" means "to teach, to shape, to mold, or to perfect." Remember this.
• Be firm, be consistent, and build a personal relationship with your child.
• Be careful not to become overly performance oriented with your children.

  Your children are more than just homework, reports, and chores. There is a real person there who has hopes, dreams, fears, likes and dislikes. Get to personally know your child.

• Quality time is no substitute for quantity time.

  The average father in America spends only 47 seconds a day in conversation with his children. But I am sure that it is "quality time."

• Be a positive person, and a positive role model for your child.

  The best predictor of how your child will be when he is 30-40 years old is how YOU are as a person today. Be a positive influence on your child socially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

• Make the effort to catch your child doing something right every day.
• Teach your child how to be successful. But first, take the time to figure out in your own life what it means to be "successful."

  Is it just having more money or stuff? Or is there more to your life than that?

• Teach your child self-control and respect for others.
• Know the difference between being a "parent" and being a "friend."

  You are the parent. That is your responsibility and right. Don't trade it for merely being a friend.

• Parenting is not about being "liked" by your child. It is about doing what is "right" for your child.

  Always do what is right, even if your child doesn't like it. You are the adult and you know what is "right" and what is "wrong." Your child is just a child and needs to be taught by YOU what is right and wrong. Be strong and do the right thing.

• Wise King Solomon said that "foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child."

  Our children start of with "foolishness" and need to be taught "wisdom." We are given 18 to 22 years to teach our children wisdom - they don't start off with it, we have to teach it.