Things turn ugly in a relationship when we lose our calm and engage in yelling, arguing, nagging, complaining and criticizing. This is certainly not how we want our children to remember us, or they would want their future children to remember. We all need to work on our patience levels. The most important thing that we can do is to change our perspective and try to be more patient with our children. Be Thoughtful We should try treating our children as our houseguests, this way we can see a lot of changes in their behaviour in a month’s time. We first need to change ourselves if we want our children to change. Thoughtfulness leads to patience. Self-Care Is The Key Self-care is the key to better parenting which results in being more patient. Sleep is very important for fostering patience. It is hard to be patient with our kids when we are overtired. It is incredibly hard to work on our patience level when we are already tired. Keep Yourself Hydrated We should keep ourselves hydrated and eat a healthy diet. A German philosopher some 60 years ago exclaimed, “We are what we eat”, which is true. If you don’t drink enough water and eat a healthy meal, you aren’t going to be as happy which will only develop frustration and conflict. Thinking about hydration as the direct link to improved patience with our kids may seem like a stretch, but every single little step can get us closer to our goal of being more patient. Feeling better will help us do that. Exercise Daily Movement aids in developing patience. Exercise daily and you will be dealing better with your kids. Exercise releases endorphins which trigger a positive feeling in our body which makes us happy which surely work on our patience levels. Best Example of Patience Always try to be a patient role model as our kids are watching us 24X7, not just the time we are outside the home. We do behave when outside but as we enter home, we forget that the audience we are catering to is same. They are the ones who will learn from us. Remember to be the best example of patience. Being Prepared Be proactive, it surely will help to be more patient. Think of the dinnertime when the children are already hungry, cranky and you are not yet finished with preparing meals. This will end up in losing the temper. Being prepared stops this. The root of impatient behavior is always the same: unpreparedness. Be prepared before time. Forgive Yourself It’s high time that we need to give ourselves grace and time to change. If you have been someone that loses their patience easily, give yourself time to break from this habit. Forgive yourself for whatever you did that day and do better tomorrow. We cannot be perfect all the time. We will lose our patience at some point of time for sure but what we can do is work on doing it better. Remember each day is a new start. When we know better, we do better. Remind yourself that you can always learn, grow and improve as a parent. It is quite natural to make mistakes, but how we come back from them is worth considering. Try to calm down when you start losing your cool, and open your eyes to look at the beautiful children in front of you, watching your every move. Be the best example of the kind, patient person that you can be. -Sugandha Asgola
