Overview
Family bonds are one of the strongest connections humans tend to make. Developing healthy relationships and spending quality time between a parent and a child not only strengthen family bonds but it also provides a sense of belonging and security for the family. Strong family bonds are crucial to improving behaviour in children, academic performance and communication skills between parent and child. Parenting can be full of joy, meaning, and satisfaction but at the same time, it can also come with struggles, uncertainties, and challenges from raising a child.
The entire journey is a daunting one as each stage of upbringing from new-born stage to toddler, and to teenager stage is different and requires different responsibilities. Parents are not only responsible for their physical, emotional, and financial needs but are also responsible for honing their children’s skills in areas such as communication, social interaction, appropriate behaviour, and life skills.
The strongest connection humans tend to make is the one between them and their families. A healthy partnership between a parent and a child is one thing that every family thrives for. Parenting can be full of joy, fulfilment, and satisfaction but at the same time it also comes with uncertainties, insecurities, and general uneasiness about the whole journey. This journey of a parent from a new born to toddler to teenager, each stage in itself is a learning curve for every parent. They are not only responsible for their physical, emotional, and financial needs but are also responsible for developing their children’s life skills like social skills, daily living skills and appropriate behaviour.
Affordable Counselling for Parenting Concerns Singapore
Each child is unique with their own temperament and personality. Since there is no “one size fits all” method, this may leave parents feeling overwhelmed over the varying opinions and advice about parenting. Differing information and knowledge may in turn lead to difficulty in managing a problematic issue with their child. There are some common issues that parents face with their children which may impact their day-to-day lives depending upon the development stage of their child, temperament, environment, etc.
Each child is unique with his own temperament and there is no fix manual to raise a child. This makes parents feel overwhelmed sometimes which can in turn lead to difficulty in managing a problematic situation with their child. There are few common issues that parents face which can be manifested in their lives in many forms depending upon the development stage of child, temperament, environment, etc.
These issues can be:
- Temper tantrums
- Aggression or violent attitude
- Sibling rivalry
- Power struggle with the child
- Ineffective communication with the child
- Lack of quality time devoted to the child
- Unrealistic expectations from child especially those with special needs.
- Inconsistent parenting styles between parents which produces conflicting rules that makes setting up a routine difficult for children.
- Existing mental health issues that concern parents and these issues may impact parenting
- Relationship conflict between parents
- Temper tantrums among children.
- Child showing any concerning behaviour.
- Aggression or violence at home or shown in the child.
- Power struggle with the child.
- Ineffective communication with the child.
- Not able to devote enough time to your children.
- Unrealistic expectations from your children especially children with special needs.
- Inconsistent parenting styles which can make implementing rules and setting up routine difficult for children.
- Parents handling their own mental health issues and other issues that impact parenting.
Parental stress levels have risen recently amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent 2019 family survey conducted on 1,076 mothers in Singapore found that 60% of mothers reported stress levels of at least seven out of ten. This increased stress levels may also trigger unhealthy parenting behaviours such as being too controlling or raising their voices and blaming their child for misbehaviour. Recent research has shown that parental stress is linked with harsh parenting (i.e., caning, spanking, use of harsh words, and yelling) and weaker relationship ties between parents and children.
The pandemic has also further contributed to the stress level of parents. In a survey carried out in Singapore in 2019 stated that 60% of mothers reported stress level of 7 or higher out of 10 which made them fiercer with their kids. Many parents have felt lonely and anxious managing their kids and work life balance. In October 2020, a nationwide survey was carried out by American Academy of Paediatrics stating that 27% of parents reported worsening of their own mental health and 14% parents reported worsening behavioural health of their children.
Parenting Counselling aims at providing necessary knowledge, tools, guidance, and support to parents without any judgement or biases. It comes with many benefits for both themselves and their children that parents can get by attending therapy sessions and talking to experts.
For parents:
- Identify and manage their past experiences that may be affecting there parenting styles
- Discuss and manage their parenting styles
- Revaluate parental expectations
- Improve communication skills between themselves and their children.
- Learn and understand their children’s needs and address them
- Identifying and managing their own past experiences that can be affecting there parenting.
- Communicating better between themselves and their children.
- Availability of resources in the community that can be helpful to them.
For children:
- Better emotion regulation
- Manage tantrums and behavioural issues
- Judgement free and safe space to process their emotions
- Educate them on how to express feelings in an effective way.
- Better managing their emotions and tantrums.
- Judgement free and safe space to process their emotions.
- Expressing the feelings in an effective way.
- Managing behavioural issues.
Counselling can take place with single or both parents. There is no one “best” method for parenting. Therapy helps to remove this pressure and provides different parenting styles and tools to manage their children’s behaviours.
Counselling can occur with single or both the parents. There is no such thing as a perfect parent and therapy help us to remove that pressure from our mind and just works towards being the best parent one can be.
Get Help Now
Before it gets worst, let us help you process and validate your parenting concerns and possible trigger factors that contributes to your parenting challenges. We will explore effective coping skills, communication skills, parenting management as well as mediating the various miscommunication or misunderstanding that will help you excel better in your life to handle expectations or responsibilities effectively.
This article uses material from WebMD and other useful references for parenting issues. The article is for use of reference and information only, for specific diagnoses and treatment, please reach out to our licensed and/or certified professionals.