Parenting can be a complex process for people. Raising a child can turn out to be a nightmare if things are not done the right way. The process needs one to be responsible and make no careless mistakes so that the child’s physical and mental health stays good. There are a range of mistakes that may vary from being too uninvolved in your child’s life to being overprotective and not allowing your child to have enough privacy.
While some of these mistakes are not irreversible and can be quickly fixed, others might be blunders causing permanent mental health issues for your child. Some of these blunders are:
Promoting Toxic Competitiveness
Society overemphasises on kids to do extremely well in school and regards only a few career streams to be well-paid. This leads to a narrow-minded parenting approach where you don’t let your kids choose what to do. This might cause them to lose all confidence due to being compared at all times, suffer from depression and anxiety, and lose all interest in the stream they are enrolled in.
Micromanagement
When you micromanage your kids, it leads to them being spoon-fed every solution. This doesn’t allow the problem-solving mindset in children to develop well. As a result, children become over-dependent on their parents and cannot stand on their own. Despite being intelligent, their emotional immaturity leads to them not being able to solve even small problems in life properly. Teaching kids to be self-reliant is of utmost importance.
Bullying
Sometimes parents become too controlling of their kids. They dictate all the terms and do not provide them with any freedom to choose or enjoy. This bullying nature in parents leads them to punish their children when they break rules and, in this process, kids lose all self-esteem and confidence. Anxiety kicks in and then building trust and intimacy with others becomes a huge task for such children.
Invalidate Child’s Feelings
Having good communication with your children is important for them to express their feelings with you. But when they do so, instead of trying to invalidate those feelings by contradicting them or talking about your experiences, be a good listener to them. Try to understand their feelings rather than school them on the same.
Child Neglect
While being over involved is problematic, being uninvolved can also lead to your kids being detached to you in the long run. Ignoring your children and not showing enough appreciation for their achievements can lead to a lack of self-confidence where they feel like an underachiever. This leads to them always trying to prove themselves worthy of your love and attention. Emotional neglect can lead to children having mental health issues as there would be nobody to listen to their problems and make them feel heard.
