: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Ways to Update your Parenting Style

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(427 Words)
If you are a grandparent raising your grandchildren, then it may not merely be a few years since you last parented – it may be decades. Yet times change, and you might feel that it is time to update your parenting. There are different strategies to consider.
Take a parenting class
There are many parenting classes available to help anyone update the style of their techniques. These are often offered through community schools, and may cost very little. You may find that they can help you with the special challenges of parenting grandchildren.
Join a mother’s group
Just because you are a grandparent does not mean that you cannot join a mother’s group. There are many groups that are open to all sorts of caregivers. When you are surrounded by other caregivers and watching the techniques that they use in order to care for their children, then you might pick up some of the newer parenting techniques.
Talk to other parents
You may know some other parents. If you join the mom’s group as described above then you will meet some. You can use them as a resource as you are parenting your grandchildren. For instance, you can ask how they would handle a particular situation. You might be able to get some good ideas.
Read parenting books
There are many parenting books out there. These can help you learn some of the techniques that recent studies have shown effective. If you look at a website such as www.amazon.com, you can find the ones that were rated the highest. These are generally not too expensive, thus you can get a variety of them and try them out to see what works best with your grandchild.
Watch parenting videos
There are different videos on parenting, which you can find on places like www.amazon.com. One very popular one is the 123 Magic by Thomas W. Phelan. You might have always spanked your children years ago because that was what was popular, but a lot of researchers are now emphasizing other techniques. You will also find a number of television programs like Supernanny that show parenting techniques. It doesn’t mean that you have to take all of them to use with your grandchildren, but the more you know, the more you can try to see what works well for you.
Parenting a grandchild is not an easy thing for a grandparent, and your styles may need to be updated since so much of your experience may come from many years ago. The above techniques may help you hone your parenting skills.
Updated On: 09/15/2010 Published On: 09/15/2010 Article ViewerClose
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