The following illustration shows the key to good parenting.

Achieve the 4 Parenting Objectives

In this website, a good parent is defined as someone having a goal of achieving the following 4 parenting objectives:

1. Strengthening relationships with their children
2. Increasing cooperation
3. Building a strong family where their children learn and practice good values
4. Increasing the likelihood their children will make good choices even when they are not around

Meet the 4 Emotional Needs

Parents can achieve the 4 Parenting Objectives by meeting their children’s 4 Emotional Needs. When parents work on meet the those needs, they will meet the 4 Parenting Objectives naturally and automatically. The 4 Emotional Needs are:

1. A sense of belonging
2. A sense of personal power
3. To be heard and understood
4. Boundaries

As parents work on meeting the 4 Emotional Needs, they will enjoy their parenting journey more, and increase the odds their children will stay off paths leading to unhappiness. In others words, their children will thrive.

Do the 15 Essential Parenting Skills

Parents can meet the 4 Emotional Needs by learning and practicing the 15 Essential Parenting Skills:

The skills used to meet the need for a sense of belonging are:

• Skill #1 – Spend one-on-one time
• Skill #2 – Spend family time together
• Skill #3 – Get to know your children
• Skill #4 – Make positive deposits

The skills used to meet a need for a sense of personal power are:

• Skill #5 – Give choices
• Skill #6 – Teach life skills
• Skill #7 – Set goals with your children

The skill used to meet the need to be heard and understood is:

• Skill #8 – Acknowledge negative feelings

The skills used to meet the need for boundaries are:

• Skill #9 – Give attention to good behavior
• Skill #10 – Making requests
• Skill #11 – Teach values
• Skill #12 – Create rules
• Skill #13 – Use consequences wisely
• Skill #14 – Enforce rules
• Skill #15 – Problem-solve together

Now it’s time to address the 15 Essential Parenting Skills.

You might be thinking, why such a long list of skills to learn? If I could make this list shorter, I would. But I don’t know which skill I would leave out.

But I’ll tell you this. Once you start doing the skills, after a little practice, they will become second nature to you. You’ll do them without thinking. And you’ll wonder, how did I ever get along without these skills?

The rest of the Mini-Lessons is divided into sections, with each section being labeled as one of the 4 Emotional Needs – until you get to the last section. The last section addresses common situations and how to approach them:

1. Tantrums
2. Aggressive behavior
3. Lying
4. Fighting between siblings
5. Disrespectful backtalk

Click on Next Page, below, to get started, or go back to Mini-Lessons by clicking All Pages.