Are you a busy dad?

Is your life anything like this:

Commuting to or from work, business travel,scheduled and
unscheduled meetings and attending to files even as you close
the door behind you in your master bedroom?

Most busy dads hardly have time for their children,they work
so hard that they tend to end up unwittingly denying their children
a valuable time which should have been positively used together as
a family.

Well, you don’t need to worry for too long because here you will be
learning how to make maximum impact as a busy dad in the life of
your children.

It is possible to raise the kids you want in the time you have.You
needn’t feel anyway guilty with yourself.

Simply follow these steps and see how much impact you would be
making in the life of your kids as a very busy dad:

* Be involved in your kids’ schooling – Try attend
the child’s”Back-to-School Night” and other activities once in a
while,or even every time since such things don’t happen every day.

* Give your child a few minutes to play together,no matter how   short,everyday before leaving home for work.Your kid will definitely appreciate the few minutes.

* Build relationships with your child’s teachers.Teacher appreciate it and communicate more with parents they have met physically.The consequence is that your child won’t get away with anything because he will surely be reported.

* Plan a trip with your child.There are always some work-free days

that would involve both you and your child.So, while not plan a short trip together?You will be glad you did as your child will forever thank you for it.

* Develop the habit of listening to your child anytime he talks to you. I don’t mean that you should just pretend that you are paying attention while you are not.Deliberately pay serious attention and let your child be convince that you are.

These are just a few of the things you can do to make maximum impact as a busy dad in the life of your children.You need to be fully engaged in the development of your children regardless of how busy you think you are.

Take action right now and see how your parenting life will improve

for the better.

Enjoy your parenting efforts.

Sikaz

As Featured On EzineArticles

You have to provide guidance to your children as a parent.
Where you fail to do this, then you’ve failed in your main
duty as a parent. Nothing you do thereafter would yield the
right result.

No matter how busy you are,you must endeavour to guide your
children to the right path so that they would turn out to be
your joy and good citizens in the nearest future.

Adequate guidance would secure your children against bad
habit, peer pressure and the intrusion of bad gang in their
lives.

Listen…

If you just continue to rare children without the provision
of proper guidance, you will surely end up regretful in the
future. They will first turn against you as they unleash their
“corrupt and poisoned” minds on the society as a whole.

Agreed!

You may be very busy and you may lack enough time to be
around your family. Though it is understandable, it is still
not enough to use this as an alibi for neglecting your
responsibilities of providing guidance as a parent.

Enjoy your poarenting efforts.

Sikaz

My dictionary defines this as “feelings of pride, care and
support for each other… that are shared by members of a
group”.

Where does this become applicable in parenting? You may
ask me.

Well, my answer will be; everywhere. And in every way.

Let’s take another look at the above definition once again.
Does it not mean anything deeper than this ordinary letters
to you?

Don’t you agree that for you to truly succeed as a parent you
should develop the espirit de corps with your partner and
your children?

All of us need to be assured at every point that somebody
somewhere dedicatedly cares for us and we can not
afford to disappoint them.

You should give adequate support and care to members of
your family even if doing so may infringe on your time,
money and other personal interest. That, in the true sense,
is what parenting does to you.

As a parent you need to be proud of your children’s
achievement. And also comfort them in their failed
adventures.

Be careful not to give the impression that you only care
about successful results. This may send a wrong signal to
your children because they won’t accept the truth of life
which is that failure is a stepping stone to success and
so it should be welcomed.

Where your children do not understand this fact, they will
want to do everything (including cheating, bribing, killing
and other diabolic things) to attain success by all means;
just to satisfy your crave for success.

Develop the spirit of togetherness with your children and
your partner.

This is the hallmark of parenting in its entirety.

(This is excerpted from my book: A-Z of Parenting)

Enjoy your parenting efforts.
Sikaz

Cultivate the friendship of your partner and your children.
Where your partner sees him/herself as your friend,
he/she would work in harmony with you to achieve
success in your parenting enterprise.

Take it from me, everybody is needed in this exercise.
Nobody should be left out. It’s just not advisable to
exempt even the smallest ranking person in your
household or family because at the end of the day they
may be the saving grace to your child.

Carry your partner along with you. Let your partner
know what you intend to do and what you are doing in
order to succeed as a parent.

It’s got to be a joint venture!

As parents you have to develop a very strong
relationship and speak in one voice based on the
understanding that if you don’t ,it would eventually
affect your children and lead to total failure in your
parenting duties.

You should also learn to cultivate the friendship of your
child or children. This is vital because when your
children see you as a friend, they will be free to express
themselves to you.

They will not hesitate to tell you about their problems,
feelings and ambition.

They will submit themselves to your pieces of advice at
all times instead of listening to the wrong and
misleading advice of their peers.

You can also consult your children whenever you want
to make any decision concerning the family. Ask them
their individual opinions about what step to take. I can
assure you that they will really surprise you by the time
they make their suggestions.

The problem with us as parents is that we usually
under-estimate they intelligence of our own children,
yet we continue to pray for them to be wise and
knowledgeable while we do not subject their wisdom to
a test even when there are opportunities to do so and
even get a good result in the end.

Where your children have good and better ideas than
your own, please do not rubbish their ideas. Use the
ideas and make your children feel proud of themselves
that after all they are contributing to growth, progress
and development of their family even in their own little
way.

Be friendly with every member of your family in order
for you to succeed in your parenting enterprise.

(This is excerpted from my book: A-Z of Parenting)

Enjoy your parenting efforts.

Sikaz

Choking in toddlers, though a rare occurrence, is seen by medical experts as one of the causes of unintentional death in children.

If parents of toddlers endeavoured to be very careful in the handling of their children there is the possibility of preventing so many harmful thing that may unwittingly cause them sorrows in life through preventable death.

Some everyday objects that we have around us such as safety pins, coins and other tiny metal and plastic toys could lead to choking in toddlers.

These are not the only cause of choking; food is the main reason responsible for death through choking in toddlers.

When your baby is about one year old, you should be careful and seriously watchful as your baby sample new foods on his way to weaning from the breast. This is important in the sense that some tiny but solid foods can cause your child to die contrary to your personal intention.

If you follow this suggestion and take the correct step, you may succeed in preventing sudden death through choking:

Avoid Giving Babies Hard Foods
When your baby is still very young, say around the age of one or thereabout,
Try not to give him hard and smooth foods like groundnuts as they could be
choked up while trying to swallow such food.

I am sure this is definitely not your intention for your baby, is it?

Yet, a baby who is of that age must not be allowed to get near groundnuts
Until perhaps he is about four or more years old.

No Round Food, please!
In as much as you may be eager to see your baby taking his first solid food,
avoid offering round food like carrots, grapes, hard biscuits and meat sticks.

You should do away with the above foods because they can easily lodge in
the baby’s throat.

Cut Food to Pieces
No matter how occupied you may be or how tight your time is, make sure that
you cut or break the hard food you are offering to your baby into small pieces that he can bite. If possible try to marsh the food before giving it to the baby to obviate choke up.

You can see for yourself that it is not difficult to prevent the loss of one’s baby .As long as the precautions are followed.

When you follow the outlined steps, it is certain that your baby will not only
learn to eat hard solid food, but his life would be secured and well protected
from harms.

Enjoy your parenting efforts.

Sikaz