Modern Parenting Strategies
Introduction
Newborn children expose individuals to a challenging environment because of their constant need for attention. Parents undergo stressful moments due to the toddlers’ unpredictable behavior and their sensitive nature towards different aspects of their immediate environment. Parents are supposed to maintain a clean environment and develop coping mechanisms for their unpredictable sleeping patterns, which deprive quality hours of sleep, leading to fatigue accumulation. From this realization, many first-time parents engage in professional nanny services because of their inability to attend to the changing needs of newborn babies. Although mothers are supposed to create time for their children to establish the parent-child bond, many parents revert to their corporate responsibilities, which allow them to access quality healthcare, housing, and other basic needs without struggling. Unfortunately, many women undergo postpartum depression, which affects their relationship with the newborn child and other people in their immediate environment. Hence, first-time and continuing parents should seek medical help when they encounter difficult situations that affect their children’s interactions.
Action Plan
While newborn children bring excitement to the family, they expose parents and immediate individuals to stress and fatigue. In this regard, many people may fail to develop effective coping mechanisms because of their inability to overcome situations that influence their newborn children’s perspectives (Chung, Wan, Kuo, Lin, & Liu, 2018). Despite a person being a first-time parent or a veteran, they are supposed to take care of themselves by making informed dietary decisions that support their ability to overcome challenges in their surroundings. For instance, one cannot embrace caffeine as a substitute for sleep because of its long-term effects on their interactions with the newborn child. Likewise, parents should embrace healthy foods and drinks that enable them to develop a positive perspective of life and incorporate their general feelings during their interactions with other people. Importantly, identifying a perfect time that allows parents to switch and take turns taking care of the newborn child is critical to avoid scenarios where one may feel worked up more than the other. Resting is essential to taking care of the child and exposing them to an enabling environment to realize their desired goals in life.
After giving birth, many parents receive visitation requests from friends, workmates, and extended family members. In this regard, regular visits can be time-consuming and may interfere with sleeping patterns, which introduce additional problems that affect one’s relationship with the newborn child. Notably, parents should establish visiting days and times to avoid scenarios where they cannot take care of the baby. Letting the excited groups about the best time they can visit is critical to maintaining one’s health and that of the newborn child (Al Tarawneh, Shoqirat, & Almalik, 2020). Intensive preparation is required when parents expect visitors, and this may take time and drain the energy that would have been directed to responding to the child’s unpredictable sleeping patterns. From this realization, informing individuals about the best timing is highly effective and contributes to enhancing parenting skills and experience.
First-time parents have high standards about their new life as responsible adults. Unlike veterans who have had prior experiences, first-time parents anticipate glorious moments where their children will adopt a standard sleeping pattern and only cry when hungry. However, new parents are urged to lower their parenthood standards and go with the flow to avoid disappointments that may affect their attitude towards their newborn children. In the same vein, they should expect various changes to occur because of the addition of a new life in their family (Jones, 2017). Considering the measures that should be adopted to overcome emerging challenges, parents should be dynamic and responsive to the changes that occur in real-time. Many parenting experts indicate that individuals can switch from admiring their child’s giggles and innocent faces to worrying about their loss of independence to the newborn child. When this happens, parents should visit medical facilities that administer therapy to develop coping mechanisms to the different stressors in their immediate environment.
Community Networks
Families have different needs that affect their ability to achieve their desired milestones in life. First-time parents and veterans may experience specific scenarios that undermine their ability to accomplish their expected results based on their newborn children’s interactions. Depending on the nature of challenges facing parents, families experience difficult moments that interfere with their perspectives towards life. Many organizations devote their resources to help parents overcome emerging challenges caused by the newborn child. Stress and fatigue can be handled through quality rest and sharing responsibilities to avoid scenarios where one parent takes a toll on the critical moments (Hagen, Iversen, & Svindseth, 2016). From this realization, families require additional support from community networks and other organizations that understand the impact of the new identity and responsibilities on the nature of relations between parents and their newborn children.
The National Parenting Education Network (NPEN) exposes parents to an enabling environment where they can learn various critical insights to maintaining healthy relations with their newborn children. The organization develops parenting initiatives and shares them with individuals who are in dire need of understanding their children’s unpredictable behaviors. Notably, the parent educators provide insights that inform the parents on the best practices they should embrace to maintain quality relationships and bonds with their newborn children. Some of the concepts shared by NPEN include discipline and family management, which compel parents to review their changing perspectives towards life. In the same vein, Feeding America complements the nutritional deficit in the U.S., which exposes newborn children to a series of health issues that affect their growth and development. In this regard, the organization informs the parents about the feeding strategies and the type of foods parents should adopt to avoid malnourishment issues.
Parenting Obstacles
Today, parenting has become a demanding task because of the compelling nature of work to handle the increasing responsibilities in life. In this case, many parents encounter various challenges that hinder their ability to establish and maintain their relationships with newborn children. Even when children grow past their young age and step into the teenage phase, parents are still expected to keep a keen eye on their behavior to avoid situations where they are distracted by events in their surroundings. However, scarcity of time to connect with newborn children and those in their teenage stage is one of the primary challenges parents face in administering their duties (Tani, Castagna, & Ponti, 2018). Many individuals have a tight schedule or work two jobs to cater to the high cost of living and other basic needs critical to the growth and development of children. When children do not receive the much-needed attention at their young age, they may develop an inferiority complex, which may affect their interactions with other people during their adult stage.
Reflection
I chose this population group because of its impact on the perspectives of parents towards life. Many first-time parents experience postpartum depression because of the lack of support from their immediate friends on the best approaches they can use to accomplish their parenting goals. Although the techniques used by individuals may vary from one family to another, I believe parents should lower their expectations about the new experiences and focus on adopting a strategy that works for them and their newborn children. Since no one talks about the challenges associated with parenthood, exploring this topic will inform would-be parents and expose them to an enabling environment to explore different outcomes that influence their thought process. Likewise, discussing the best approaches parents can use to accomplish their desired goals is an important aspect that should be incorporated into modern-day interactions to overcome challenges that affect the thought process of individuals.
Conclusion
First-time and continuing parents should seek medical help when they encounter difficult situations that affect their interactions with their children. Newborn babies require constant attention that may take a toll on parents who do not share responsibilities. Regardless of gender, parents should create a suitable schedule that works for them and the newborn child. The inability to get adequate rest leads to stress and accumulation of fatigue that may affect the nature of relations between a parent and the infant. Many non-profit organizations are committed to the development of strategies that focus on aligning the thought process of parents with that of their newborn babies. Even though aspects such as scarcity of time hinder parents from connecting with their children, individuals should establish a functional timeline that meets the changing needs of the newborns.
