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Setting Our Children Free
How to Raise Your Baby Outside the Box
By Gina Roberts-Grey, LCSW
Instilling good values, a respect for household rules and the ability to make solid decisions in children is a common priority among parents. From the day you bring your baby home from the hospital, you begin guiding him through a multitude of experiences in his life.
You hope to foster respect and versatility in your child while also nurturing his sense of responsibility. You apply a mix of examples taken from your childhood, advice from fellow parents and your expectations for his future to devise a set of rules and guidelines for your baby.
It is easy to become immersed in a set of household rules that begin to limit creativity and individuality. From enforcing dinnertime manners to establishing your threshold for a messy room, in his lifetime you'll introduce hundreds of standards to your child. Before he's 2 years old, he'll learn there are a distinct set of rules under which your household operates. He'll also realize he has his own ideas to resolve some of the situations he'll face in his life.
From precise nap times to matching the colors of his clothes, your baby will spend the majority of his developmental years following someone else's agenda. All the decisions he'll live with will be made with the best of intentions for him by the adults in his life.
Your child needs your behavioral instruction and guidance as he develops, but he also requires a bit of freedom to fully develop aspects of his unique personality. While the security of structure and organization is beneficial to both children and parents alike, consider the added value of raising him slightly outside a few of your parameters.
His entire childhood is a giant learning curve that is filled with limitations, rules and choices. Giving him the safe freedom to help determine some boundaries helps him learn how to make decisions.
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