Make a difference
Anyone who wants to make a difference -- CAN make a difference in improving these areas for our children and families. Any adult CAN build on our community’s strengths. Recognize that the connections you make with your child, and other children in our community, are a very important protective factor---a buffer from the risk factors that surround them.
- Learn to Listen – Put down your own cell phone or newspaper. Take the time to really listen to what your kids are saying, especially at the times they are ready to talk. Ask questions that require more than a yes or no response. When a topic comes up naturally in conversation use it as a springboard for discussion, creating your own “teaching moment”. Quite often, kids learn more this way than from simply listening to a lecture, and you strengthen your relationship in the process.
- Set limits – Whether study habits or rules about drinking or drugs, set the standards. Kids of all ages thrive on structure. What decent coach sends the team out on the field without instructions and expectations? Set the limits and standards that your family believes in – and enforce them.
- Be Involved at School – Regardless of your child’s grade level, volunteer, attend parent programs, conferences and keep in touch with teachers. Too many middle and high school parents think their kids don’t want them there – but too many opportunities are then missed to interact with teachers and other parents and share perspectives. Middle and high school is the time for parents to check-in, not check-out.
- Model Healthy Behavior – The decisions kids make, especially during their teen years, have a substantial effect on their life-long health and mortality. Resolve to exercise, live and eat healthfully – and your kids just might follow suit.
- Know What They’re Watching -- Whether on TV or online, know what your kids are watching. Try to watch it together! Some material is simply inappropriate, depending upon your child’s age, but some material may offer an opportunity to start an honest discussion about your own values and expectations and the mixed messages that media sends about body image, substance use, and violence. Learn what they’re saying and who they’re “talking to” online and set appropriate limits.
- Watch Your Language – Today bashing and bullying others - even in jest - has become a way of life. Watch what you say about others, and how you say it.
- See the Big Picture – Childhood is not all about being happy. Remember that the goal of parenting is to raise healthy, productive adults. Allow your children to fail – and to learn from their mistakes.
Together we CAN make a difference!
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