Author: MJT
Getting The Parenting Information You Need
Go to your web browser and type in the term parenting
information and you’ll get a gazillion jillion responses of every kind and
color. Go to the library and look up
“parenting information” in the catalog and you’ll get hundreds of books on
every possible aspect of parenting. With
all this information, how do you sort it out and find the parenting information
you need?
When you’re dealing with a specific issue, it’s pretty easy
to find information related to it. If
the baby’s teething, you look up teething.
If your teen is signing up for driver’s education, you look up driver’s
education. In addition to situational
topics, there are general areas of information that it is handy to know
something about.
That’s the kind of parenting information you want to have on
hand before you have questions. You
might want to collect a few books, or create a notebook, with this kind of
parenting information in it. Collect the
information from books, magazines, friends and family, the internet and every
other source you can think of. Then
you’ll know what to do before something happens.
Emergencies
Learn how to deal with common childhood emergencies. Learn how to do CPR on children. Learn basic first aid techniques and gather
parenting information on common childhood illnesses, such as colds, roseola and
RSV. Learn what to do if your child has
a fever. Find out when to take him to
the doctor, when to go to the emergency room and when to keep him away from
other children. You cannot prepare for
every conceivable emergency, but you can collect parenting information to
prepare for the things you will probably encounter.
Skill development
Collect parenting information about skills your child needs
to learn. When she is a toddler, collect
information about potty training, and teaching her how to use a spoon. During
preschool years, find parenting information about teaching numbers, colors,
ABC’s and shapes. As your child grows
up, you’ll want to know how to make sure he acquires the skills he needs to be
an adult, bit by bit.
Learn what skills are taught at what age, like when do you
start swimming or music lessons? When do
you teach cooking, or car maintenance, of financial management? This is parenting information you’ll probably
collect as you go; you don’t need to know about driver’s education when your
oldest is five but you do need to know how to prepare her for school.
Activities
A folder full of activity ideas is some of the handiest
parenting information you can acquire.
Collect vacation ideas, ideas about things to do in your area, craft
ideas, and rainy day ideas. Newspapers
and magazines have tons of good activity ideas for your file.
One of the advantages parents have today is that there is so
much information available. You do have
to be a bit discerning and narrow your information search, or you will be on
information overload. It’s helpful to
have basic parenting information on hand, and you can add new knowledge as you
need it.
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