16 Ways to Improve Parent-Child Relationship

Last Updated on September 30, 2024 by Joshua Isibor

Improving A parent-child relationship is not an easy task. But as parents, we should strive to achieve a pleasant and cordial relationship with our kids There is nothing like a perfect home, Likewise life. So problems and quarrels are to be expected, still, your children should know that they can rely on you.
A lot of parents are having issues with their children not knowing they failed to strengthen the parent-child relationship. The negative result can be overwhelming because you would begin to say something like “ I never believed Josh would behave this way”. A lot of things must have happened. Stuff like that takes years to nurture and mature before results like that show.
One keyword that shouldn’t be eliminated when talking about the parent-child relationship is “connection”. Without connection, all your little effort would be a waste.

How to strengthen Parent-child Relationship

1. Start from Scratch:

One way to improve a parent-child relationship is to start from scratch. This goes FIRSTLY to the mothers because they are the ones who are responsible for carrying the pregnancy (hence, there is should be a mother-to-child bond). How you behave and take care of your child from age 0 matters a lot.

Several years, ago I once had a neighbor around my dwelling. She has been trying to get pregnant for 15years in her marriage but no result. She was encouraged by her friend to adopt a child. Luckily for her, she adopted a beautiful girl who was less than a year old.

The woman had a relative (young girl) staying with her who was about 15years of age. I discovered the woman never showed the child motherly love. From bathing the child to feeding the child, she was absent, she then allowed her relative to do all the work.

7 years later, everything changed, it was obvious that the child loves and respects the relative more than her mom and this caused a lot of trouble in her home especially when she tried to chase the girl out.
Starting from scratch as a parent is very important not just to mothers but also to fathers. When you fail to bond with your child from a very young age, it would be very difficult when he/she is fully mature.

2.Be Available:

Being available for your kids is very important!! Available may not necessarily be present at home all the time. Just like every adult has emotional or physical needs, children also have needs!! They are humans too. Never give your child the thought of “ I wish my dad was here”, and peradventure you are there. It would be so bad. Being available involves being attentive to all that concerns them. If you have a way to sort out their physical needs DO!!! It improves the parent-child relationship.

3.Invest your Effort and time

An adage says nothing good comes easily, just like exams!! You have to work for it!! In getting a near-perfect relationship with your children you have to put more effort and time. In life, qualitative is always more preferable than quantitative.

A parent might spend 8hrs with his child and nothing would be productive and at the same time a parent can also spend an hour with his child and it would be productive. Whenever you are with your children let every moment you spend with them count.

4. Put yourself in their shoes

These go for children who are in their teenage age. One major difference between kids and teen is that teen needs privacy while kids need more interaction. It’s very good for parents to understand their children very well.

Sometimes the decision or action you take may not be very good for parenting. Overdoing something’s as a parent may destroy all the effort and time you’ve invested in that child. Putting yourself in their shoes helps to correct a lot of mistakes parents make. When you do all these you would begin to checkmate and correct things accordingly.

5. Be interested in their Affairs

Are you a parent who has this “I don’t care attitude”? It’s high time you become an intentional parent. You need to start having an interest in their studies, passion, friends, and other activities. If your child loves football and you’re the type that hates football, parent-child bonding may not work properly.

The major point here is to be interested in every area of their life so as to win their heart.
If you’re too bored as a parent you can get your kids a video game, so you could play with them.

6.Communication

Communication is always the one key to a successful marriage or any type of relationship. Every parent should be their child’s best friend. The communication you have with your child should be friendly and fair enough. Communication goes beyond.. how are you doing? how was your day? ….
It also involves knowing the deep things which are in the heart of your children.

7. Make family Time important

It is very crucial for every family to spend time together because it is the family that spends time together that stays together. Family time can be in the form of seeing a movie together or going on a vacation. This can be done often to improve the parent-child bond. When you always break the family time you break each piece of bond necessary to bond with your child effectively.

8. Encourage your child.

Encouraging them is part of the strategy needed for the bonding. Children should never be left unmotivated. When you motivate and encourage them, their heart would be lifted up. They would always have it in their mind that “MY DAD/MY MOM is the best motivation that I can ever get. “Whenever they have any challenge, they can face it with optimism knowing how you’ve helped them gained confidence.

9.Trust your child and be trustworthy

Trust is one important factor in every relationship because it’s the foundation on which a relationship is built. Expressing trust in parenting is very important. It’s true that you should trust no man but showing a level of trust for your child is needed. Apart from trusting our children, it is very important that being trustworthy is more important because your child would feel safe and secure.

10. Respect your child

In life, respect is reciprocal< meaning “give and take”. As a parent, when you show disrespect you’ll get it in return. It’s expedient for you to respect their decision, personality, and views.

11.. Be an active listener

Whenever your child tells you anything, never take it for granted. listen attentively no matter how foolish he/she may sound. An adage says for every “NONSENSE” there is always a “SENSE”. One good characteristic of an active listener is that he/she is never quick to judge.

12. Eat Together

Some parents may think this is somehow disrespectful but I tell you that it is not. Once in a while, you can eat with your children. Feel them. This would make them so happy and the love would grow massively. You can set aside dinner to eat with your kids. eating together is really fun, especially when you go to the beach together.

13. Avoid yelling too much

Yelling is good as a parent because it commands respect and it’s also necessary for discipline. But shouting at every mistake your child makes is very bad sometimes they need to be treated with soft words.

14. Tell them “ I love you”

Saying “I love you” really strengthens the parent-child relationship. The word “I love you” shouldn’t be meant for just your spouse, children also need that word!!! This really helps especially if you are far from your children. Whenever you are on skype, zoom, or on a phone call with them don’t hesitate to end the call without saying “ I love you”

15. Establish a special name

You can give them a special name for your kids apart from their normal names. While I was growing up I had one special name my mom calls me and whenever she calls me, I always feel so happy.

16. Always hug and kiss them

This is mostly done whenever you come back from work. Hugging your child should be a daily routine if you want to strengthen the parent-child relationship. when you start hugging and kissing them, the bond would be automatically be initiated.

ALSO, READ Making time for your KIDS

Originally posted 2020-11-07 16:48:40.