Northwest NC Families league of local Triple P providers are here to help you raise a happy, healthy family, no matter the age. How does this look? Triple P focuses on building relationships, communicating well, and encouraging positive behavior. Our principles help you manage your child’s behavior, emotions, and development.

Triple P’s Positive Parenting helps you feel more confident about raising your family. As you develop new habits and patterns of communication, you’re likely to have fewer knock-down, drag-out arguments with your partner and your family. Studies show that kids growing up in an environment with positive parenting have better focus in school and earn better grades. Kids in a positively-structured home also make friends easily, have higher self-esteem, and are less likely to have behavioral or emotional problems as adults.

If you are ready to incorporate a little more positive parenting into your home, Triple P’s Five Steps to Positive Parenting is a great place to start:

Step One – Create a Safe, Interesting Environment

We encourage families to create a safe and interesting home environment. Bored kids and teens are more likely to misbehave or find trouble. To get ahead of these temptations, you can develop a space that allows kids to explore and develop their skills at home.

Beginning with building a safe environment, parents can start by meeting the essential needs of their kids. Connect with local organizations (where needed) to increase your family’s support system to meet basic needs. Make sure your kids can find these essentials, including first-aid items and healthy snacks or drinks during the day.

You can develop an exciting home environment by encouraging independent activities like reading, creating art, building, or working on puzzles. These activities will give your kids a go-to routine when bored throughout the day. Additionally, you can play different music throughout your home to infuse energy in day-to-day activities and inspire random dance parties and positive activities throughout the day.

Step Two – Have a Positive Learning Environment

Children need a supportive, nurturing environment to develop, and you can create a positive learning environment by paying attention to your children and reinforcing that you are there for them when they come to you for help or attention. Even when pressed for time, give them positive attention. Encourage their ideas and opinions, and ask them about their day. Listening to their stories helps them feel validated and heard in their experiences.

When your child or teen approaches you with a question or wants to talk through an idea, you can turn this conversation into a learning opportunity. Employ incidental teaching by prompting them to discuss their idea or question and guiding them to discover the answer instead of telling them the answer. Incidental teaching encourages problem-solving skills and introspection.

Step Three – Use Assertive Discipline

Children thrive when knowing what to expect from their surroundings and what others expect of them. By setting clear rules and boundaries, then following through with fair consequences, your kids will understand how to behave. Involve your older kids in this process by talking through rules, consequences, and appropriate behavior and deciding on these boundaries and expectations together.

Assertive discipline involves being consistent and quickly acting when children misbehave and teaching them to behave acceptably. When you prepare for different situations, establish ground rules, give clear instructions, and praise appropriate behavior, kids are more likely to respond positively. Additionally, assertive discipline is the most effective when all parents or caregivers support each other and use the same approach.

Step Four – Have Realistic Expectations

In any relationship, the majority of issues boil down to unmet expectations. When your kids don’t meet your expectations, you have to consider if your expectations are realistic and communicate them clearly to your kids.

As you consider your expectations for your kids, remember that all children are individuals with unique personalities and develop interpersonal skills at different rates. When you don’t know if your child is ready to learn a new skill, seek advice from Northwest NC Families and your local Triple P provider.

Step Five – Take Care of Yourself as a Parent

Positive parenting is all about balance. You know how to look after your family’s needs, but are you making time to look after yourself as a parent? Parenting gets easier when you make time for friends, intimacy, fun activities, and alone time. We can take a note from airplane procedures: in emergencies, you should secure your oxygen supply before moving to help your kids or neighbors. If you can meet your needs as an adult, it’s much easier to be patient, consistent, and available to your family.

We recommend setting realistic boundaries with work and monitoring your expectations of yourself at home. You are only human, after all! When you are upset with your family, think about any negative thoughts you might be saying to yourself. How can you change those thoughts into kind things? Speak to yourself how you would talk to a dear friend or a loved one. You can also lean on Triple P‘s network of local providers to build up your parenting support system.

Connect with Triple P and Northwest NC Families

Northwest NC Families is here to support you on your parenting journey. Triple P’s Five Steps to Positive Parenting set the groundwork for building healthy family relationships, but our local Triple P providers are here to take your family beyond the basics. Contact us today, and let’s begin your journey to positive parenting.