Caring Relationships Help Create Stronger, Positive Parenting Skills
Young children grow and develop so fast that it can be hard adapting quickly to their changes, especially when you feel that you just began understanding their daily needs or established a routine. It’s easy – and understandable -- for parents to feel a little overwhelmed when these moments shift or something else occurs that upsets the balance you have so carefully crafted.
This is where the positive parenting learnings and tips we’ve introduced in our Strengthening Families Series these past few months can make a big difference. The Strengthening Families Five Protective Factors helps families build a strong foundation of knowledge, parenting skills, and supports so that they can successfully make it through normal everyday situations and periods of high stress or crisis, eventually leading their families to thrive in all situations. So far, we’ve introduced three Protective Factors: Parent Resilience, Concrete Support in Times of Need, and Knowledge of Child Development.
The fourth Protective Factor, and one of the most powerful, is creating and maintaining strong Social Connections, which refer to relationships with other adults in your circle of support. Parents need friends and allies who care and support them just as children do as they offer lots of benefits such as reducing isolation, loneliness and stress for the parent and improving the ability to cope with challenges. Research indicates that caring relationships will improve parenting and create a stronger parent-child relationship.
Families should aim to have several sources of social connections that provide different types of support as long as they find them to be mutually supportive and add value. For instance, cultivating thoughtful friend relationships with neighbors and other parents you meet at child care or at a sports practice can help you receive and give support as needed. Connecting with community such as clergy, child care and K-12 teachers, and neighborhood organizations can introduce you to Concrete Supports like food banks, healthcare and child care options when you need them. They are great sources also for obtaining new information to help you build your parenting knowledge and provide events and activities for family fun and respite.
As a parent, it is important to have the ability and opportunity to build positive social connections but many find it difficult to do so when so much of their time and energy is devoted to parenting. If you need ideas on how to get connected to other parents, see our recent article “Need Help Making Some New Mom or Dad Friends.”
Visit Quality Care for Children’s Strengthening Families page to learn more about all of the Protective Factors and for more guidance, tips and resources on how you can make new relationships and nurture your existing ones.
More Social Connections Resources:
Child Welfare Information Gateway- Social Connectedness Resources
Children’s Trust Fund Alliance – Social Connections
